Never had the flowers bloomed so gorgeously, never had the birds sung so gayly, as they did this summer on the baron's estate.

The season spent in town had greatly extended the family acquaintance, and the castle was, in consequence, almost always full of guests.

Dances, rides, acted charades, amusements of every kind, filled up the laughing hours.
What happy days these were to Lenore! True, she still remained something of an original, and her mother would at times shake her head at some daring freak or over-emphatic speech.

It came naturally to her to play the gentleman's part whenever there was a lack of gentlemen.

She was the leader in every expedition, delighting to carry off all her young female friends to some distant spot whence there was a fine view, to force them into some little village inn, where they had only milk and black bread for supper, and then to carry them all home dead-tired in a wagon, which she herself would drive standing.