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it only a cloak for the tragedy that lay underneath? The sweet scent of the flowers drifted across the terrace, laced with the spicy odor of the pine forests that lay like cool green shadows across the mountainside. She watched one of the nurses walking across the grass toward her. She looked just like an English nurse in her neat uniform, only the cap was different from the ones she knew.
    The girl stopped beside Sonia’s chair. She smiled shyly. “Please to come. It is supper. Greta send me. I am Maria.”
    Sonia stood up. “Thank you. You speak very good English, Maria.”
    The girl looked at her uncertainly. “Please to come.” Sonia smiled. She followed Maria into the dining room. Most of the tables were full and everyone seemed to be talking at once. Several looked up and smiled warmly at Sonia. They seemed to be firing questions at Maria, and the quick words of German flew back and forth across the room. Occasionally she caught a word she thought she understood, but it always eluded her before she could be sure. Someone was pulling out a chair for her and gesturing her to sit down.
    Sonia sat down shyly. “ Danke schon.”
    There was a pleased chorus of surprise.
    “You speak German?”
    But Sonia could only shake her head and presently they left her alone. She could see a nun going from table to table with a large jug filling up the soup bowls, and another was carrying a tray laden with chunks of crusty bread. She found she was surprisingly hungry, too hungry to wonder at hot soup on a summer’s day. Greta came in just as she was finishing her sausage and pickled cabbage.
    The other girl looked approvingly at her empty plate.
    “You like frankfurter and sauerkraut. It is well, because we have it often. Have you been all right while I have been working?”
    Sonia nodded, thankful that her mouth was full.
    “Michael is coming with us this evening. I trust that you do not mind. I know that you do not like him very much, but it is good that he comes. He keeps Stefan from getting too excited.”
    Sonia gulped down her mouthful. Had Michael too decided not to say anything? “That will be quite all right. After all, he is your friend, isn’t he?”
    Greta gave her a quick look and then nodded. “Yes, he is my friend. Sometimes we get very angry, but always we become friends again. He has more sense than Stefan most times, but he too can be foolish. Imagine staying in Austria when he is free to go anywhere!”
    Sonia gave her a curious glance. “I thought you loved your own country.”
    Greta tossed her head. “Of course I do, but there is no future here. In other countries there is money, position. Here there is nothing. A nurse is no one.”
    The other girls were watching them eagerly, trying to understand the English words.
    “You know America?” one asked Sonia excitedly.
    “I have been to America once when I was small.”
    The questioner looked lost until Greta translated. “You go back soon?”
    Sonia shook her head. “No, I like it better in England or here in Tirol.”
    Again Greta translated and there was a murmur of surprise. “They think you are very foolish. I think so too. I cannot wait until I am back in America once again. There is so much for everyone, not like here where there is so little.”
    Sonia stared at Greta’s bitter face. “But the Austrians seem so happy.”
    Greta shrugged her shoulders. “What good would it do to weep?” She turned back to her plate. “If you care to wait we can have coffee together. There is a cafe by the gates and they put ice in the coffee if you like it that way.”
    Sonia stood up. She was feeling a little lost. It wasn’t just being in a strange country. It wasn’t because she was so tired that all her impressions were getting blurred around the edges. Perhaps it was the way Greta’s moods changed like summer lightning. She couldn’t be sure, and right now she didn’t care.
    She summoned a smile. “I’ll wait for you on the terrace, Greta. It