She was related to the baroness and had come down from the far north, in fact from Holstein, where my godmother came from and all her connections lived.

Leonore, the daughter of one of her relations, had very early lost her father and mother, as her mother had died soon after the Baroness decided to adopt the child.

She knew that Leonore would otherwise be all alone in the world, and she hoped that a gentle sister would have an extremely beneficial influence on the two self-willed brothers.

Now a time began for me which was more wonderful than anything I could ever have imagined.

Leonore was to continue her studies, of course, and take up new ones.