Let me go to sleep for a little.' An old servant who had followed her came up and said in astonishment, 'Well, young sir, you may be proud of yourself, the child is generally so wild and rough, and with you she is as tame as a kitten.' I learned from her that little Sonia lived in the neighborhood, and that her aunt had come to look for her in our house.
She would not go away from me, and the old servant had to call her mother, who only persuaded her to return home with great difficulty.
She wanted to take me with her, and she was miserable when they told her that my mamma would not allow me.

The next morning early she was there again, and called to me from the threshold, 'I am going to stay with you all day, Wilhelm, the whole day.' I had to go to school, however, and I told her so.

She wanted to go with me, and cried and sobbed when they prevented her.

Then her relations took her home, and I did not see her again.

Later I heard that the same afternoon she was taken ill with diphtheria, and in her illness she cried so much for me that her mother came to mine to beg her to send me to her.