Then she saw in this joyless dwelling, in which she crouched with her little sisters, a young girl enter, and greet them smilingly.

She wore a robe glittering with gold, with transparent wings upon her shoulders.

This young girl was Wilhelmine's older sister, Sophie, who had just returned from the Italian opera, where she was employed.

She still had on her fairy costume in which she had danced in the opera of "Armida," and had come, with a joyous face, to take leave of her parents, and tell them that a rich Russian count loved her, and wanted to marry her; that in the intervening time he had taken a beautiful apartment for her, where she would remove that very evening.

She must bid them farewell, for her future husband was waiting for her in the carriage at the door.
Sophie laughed at her grumbling father, shook hands with her weeping mother, and bent to kiss the children.