Then her aunt and Nina, with Lotta's aid, fixed upon some plan--Nina
hardly knew what--as to the morrow. She did not care to know what it
was that they fixed. They were going to leave her alone for this day,
and the day would be very long. She told herself that it would be long
enough for her.
The day was very long. When her aunt had left her she saw no one but
Souchey and an old woman who was busy in the bedroom which was now
closed. She had stood at the foot of the bed with her aunt, but after
that she did not return to the chamber. It was not only her father who,
for her, was now lying dead. She had loved her father well, but with a
love infinitely greater she had loved another; and that other one was
now dead to her also. What was there left to her in the world? The
charity of her aunt, and Lotta's triumph, and Ziska's love? No indeed!
She would bear neither the charity, nor the triumph, nor the love. One
other visitor came to the house that day. It was Rebecca Loth. But Nina
refused to see Rebecca. "Tell her," she said to Souchey, "that I cannot
see a stranger while my father is lying dead.
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