Mrs. De Ropp would never, in her honestest moments, have confessed to herself that she disliked was a duty which she did not find particularly irksome.// Conradin hated her with a desperate Conradin, though she might have been dimly aware that thwarting him ``for his good'' sincerity which he was perfectly able to mask.// Such few pleasures as he could contrive for himself gained an added relish from the likelihood that they would be displeasing to his guardian, and from the realm of his imagination she was locked out---an unclean thing, which should find no entrance.