“I was named after him, mother, wasn’t I?” Bruno interrupted here.

“Salo was a year younger—­”

“I was called after him,” Mea said quickly.  “You wanted a Salo so much and, as I was a girl, you called me Malomea, didn’t you?”

The mother nodded.

“And I was called after father,” Kurt cried out, in order to prove that his name also had a worthy origin.

“I went up to the castle because my godmother wished it.  She would have loved to have a little daughter herself, therefore she occupied herself with me as if I belonged to her.  She taught me to embroider and to do other fine handwork.  Whenever she went with me into the garden and through the estate, she taught me all about the trees and flowers.  I was often allowed to pick the violets that grew in great abundance beneath the hedges and in the grass at the border of the little woods.  Oh, what beautiful days those were!  Soon they were to become more perfect still for us.

“But I received an impression in those days which remained in my heart for a long while like a menacing power, often frightening me so that I was very unhappy.  Once my father came down very silently from the castle.  When my mother asked him if anything had happened he replied, and I still hear his words ’Young Bruno has inherited his ancestor’s dreadful passion.  His mother is naturally more worried about this than about anything else.’”

“Look at him,” Kurt said dryly, glancing at Bruno, who was sitting beside his mother.  For answer Bruno’s eyes flashed threateningly at his brother.

“Oh, please go on, mother,” Mea urged.  She was in no mood to have the tale interrupted by a fight between her brothers.

“It seemed terrible to me,” the mother continued again, “that Bruno, my generous, kind friend, should have anything in his character to worry his mother.  Often I cried quietly in a corner about it and wondered how such a thing could be.  I had to admit it myself, however.  Whenever the three boys had a disagreement or anybody did something to displease Bruno, he would get quite beside himself with rage, acting in a way which he must have been sorry for later on.  I have to repeat again, though, that he had at bottom a noble and generous nature and would never have willingly harmed anyone or committed a cruel deed.  But one could see that his outbreaks of passion might drive him to desperate deeds.

“Salo, his brother, never became angry, but he had a very unyielding nature just the same.  He was just as obstinate in his way as his brother, and never gave in.  Philip was always on his side, for the two were the best of friends.  Bruno was much more reserved and taciturn than Salo, who was naturally very gay and could sing and laugh so that the halls would re-echo loudly with his merriment.  The Baroness herself often laughed in that way, too.  That is why Bruno imagined that she loved her younger son better than him, and because he himself loved his mother passionately, he could not endure this thought.  It was not true, however.  She loved his eldest boy passionately and everybody who was close to her could see it.