“Now come with me to the children. We shall see if they can notice any change,” she said, and taking the little girl’s hand, she led her away. Cornelli was extremely glad to enter the room at the mother’s side, for she would not have dared to go alone. When the door opened, she looked shyly at the floor.
Mux had already been waiting for his companion and now ran to meet her. “What have you done, Cornelli?” he cried out in sudden surprise. “Your forehead looks quite clean and neat, and you have shiny eyes like a canary bird, and you don’t look like an owl any more.”
“Why Cornelli! You are transformed!” Agnes exclaimed. “Just let me see you. Make a little room, Mux! No, I don’t know you any more. It is fortunate you did it, for it is a pleasure to look at you now.”
“Your mother has done it,” Cornelli explained confusedly, for she was quite overcome at all these manifestations of joy.
Nika also glanced up at her. “You are a different child, Cornelli, and I do not see how you could ever have gotten the way you were.”
These words were said in such a charming manner that a deep sensation of well-being filled Cornelli. She tried to fight against it, however, for she did not think it possible that she should suddenly become freed from her horrible, sickening fear.
Agnes was very anxious to practice their song for the festive reception of the newly risen Dino, and Cornelli, too, was filled with ardor. The two children kept up their singing quite a while, for Agnes could not weary of trying the songs for two voices which she had never before been able to use.
Dino did not come until lunch time. Though he was still very pale, he felt extremely lively. “Hurrah, Cornelli!” he cried out as he entered the living room. “Now you look again the way you used to in Iller-Stream when you forgot to pull your curtains over your brow. You even look better than that, Cornelli, you look perfectly splendid! Another hurrah for this great joy!”
The next moment a surprise came for Dino: the lovely festive song which Agnes and Cornelli were singing in his honor. The voice of the latter was full of purity and strength, and Dino kept on signalling to Nika over and over again, saying in a low voice: “Do you hear it? Do you see it? Do you notice it at last?”
It was quite evident that two had not been of the same opinion about Cornelli till that day.
So they all had a merry feast. In Cornelli’s heart the feeling of delicious well-being gradually began to drive away all other sensations. Her old gaiety broke forth boundlessly and roused all the others as well to great merriment and joy. Dino looked quite well again, and his eyes fairly beamed with happiness. Even the mother joined in their gay mood, and she had to glance over and over again at her two daughters, who had seldom shown such unclouded joy. She heaved a secret sigh, however, and asked herself: I wonder how long this happiness will last, for we have hard times before us.
“Wasn’t I right, after all?” Dino said to his sisters, when Cornelli had retired and the family separated at bedtime. The sisters till now had made disparaging remarks to him about Cornelli. “We do not see what attracts you in her,” they had said. “We don’t understand how you can find her entertaining,” and so on.
When Cornelli was alone in her room that night, she felt as in a dream. What had happened to her? Was it really true that the great sorrow which had weighed on her and had taken all her joy away had forever disappeared? The mother had told her firmly that it had been an error, and the children had proved it to be so by their reception of her. So she could be happy again as she had always been. Cornelli was filled with joy and praise to God at this thought.
“How wonderfully God has led me,” she said in her heart. She remembered how anxiously she had prayed to Him to prevent her from being sent to town. Now she had come to town, but in such a different way from what she had feared! She had been freed from her trouble by going away. Martha had certainly been right and she would always try to remember this. In the future she would pray to God that she might do everything according to His will, and she made up her mind that she would never again try to force the fulfilment of her own wishes. She felt that she owed the good Lord in Heaven especial praises, so she lay down to sleep quite late, and because of her happiness, even stayed awake a long time after her prayers were said.
“I have to tell you something, Cornelli,” said the mother next day, when all the family was peacefully gathered around the supper table. “You know that I have written to your father asking him to let you stay here a little longer. He has answered me, saying that he would be very pleased if his little daughter could stay with us for a year and could take all the lessons that my daughters are taking; but he leaves you free to decide about it. So you must write to your father to let him know the answer to his proposal.
“Oh, you must stay here, Cornelli. Won’t you please stay?” Dino exclaimed. “Then you can be here till summer time and we two can go
