As long
as she lives she'll have to be homeless. The beggar-woman who came with
the two ragged children said that. They were homeless, and Leonore said
afterwards, 'I am that way, too,' and then she cried terribly, and we
were sent out into the garden. She might have cried still more if she
had thought about our having a home with a mama while she has none. She
has no papa or anybody. But you must not think that she is a homeless
child with a torn dress; she looks quite different. Maybe she can find a
home in Apollonie's little house under the hill. Then Salo can come home
to her in the holidays. But mama does not think that this can be. But
Leonore wants it ever so much. I must bring her to you one day."
"Who are you, child? What is your name," asked the gentleman abruptly.
Maezli looked at him in astonishment.
"I am Maezli," she said, "and mama has the same name as I have. But they
don't call her that. Some people call her Mrs. Rector, some mama, and
Uncle Philip says Maxa to her and Leonore calls her Aunt Maxa."
"Is your father the rector of Nolla?" the gentleman asked.
"He has been in heaven a long while, and he was in heaven before we came
here, but mama wanted to come back to Nolla because this was her home.
We don't live in the rectory now, but where there is a garden with lots
of paths, and where the big currant-bushes are in the corners, here and
here and here." Maezli traced the position of the bushes exactly on the
lionskin.
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