Severe quarrels emerged within the “Covenant of Violets,” a garland of young girl friends. Isolde, Lina, Bella, and the black-haired Bertha were toying around, flirting with every man they saw, and could not think of anything more delightful than insulting brides or young women by acting coquettish with their men.

However, to the deeper natured members of the Covenant, this didn’t seem funny, heroic, or worthy of wasting the sacred, precious hours of their youth.

They carried something inside them that revealed the tragic gravity of existence to those who knew nothing about life.

Although in their innocence they had not yet experienced anything, they had discovered some things through observation. Their bright souls saw many sordid things thatthey wished were different. They often asked why the ugliness was concealed from them, when it was clearly there. While it was also looming over their life, they would have wished it to be delicate and as pure as the stars! And they trembled at the crudeness of existence.

Some also told each other about the books they had secretly read. It was these serious sad works that gave one a sense of how much it pained the author to portray such people. But these were the people and grievances of our times.

“These books are disgusting,” a young girl with blond hair said. “Why don’t they write something lovely, so that one can laugh at life! Instead, always something gloomy, dreadful, tortured.”

But the motherly one with the soft voice and the greenish gray eyes embraced her and spoke: “Don’t be sad, you will be strong, too.

We live in a time of transition. Many things seem crude to us that have not irritated people before. But don’t you see a ray of hope for the future in this; a sign that people want to change it?”

“Yes,” one said, “Rome wasn’t built in a day. What for centuries has been considered good, can’t simply be changed just by realizing what could be better. Our generation has to be sacrificed for a bright future, in which people can and are allowed to be happy again.”

The blond one spoke: “I would like so much to laugh and be happy.”