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haps,” she said, “that I feel ill from the wind or that I am catching cold, but is it so…?”

“Are any of your relations living?” I asked her that question because she seemed to express a wish to join her own people and establish her health.

“No,” she replied, “I have neither family nor acquaintances. And the town is also strange to me, but surely there I shall find some companions my equals.”

I was very astonished that she could call these strange people her own. Is it possible, I thought to myself, that someone would care to feed you, poor thing, without money, and still more you being a stranger…. But I did not ask her, I saw that she knitted her brows, and was not evidently pleased that I inquired about her.

The evening was coming on. I saw. clouds drawing up, the cold wind blew, and rain fell in abundance. The mud