e barouche was driving away from the front. A servant informed them that the ladies

on. She handed her card to the footm

k, smiling, as the lackey move

er. It would scarcely become me to present myself familiarly here. I am even afra

from within, almost stumbling over the threshold i

two feet nearer the ground than he found it; and this well-grown, graceful f

plying with your suggestions. Indeed, I am rather

, slowly, as if lost in contemplation of her face, which was bathed in a rosy blush. "Well, you are hea

ll that," the girl interrupted him. "The Herr Doctor

mma Urach was most amiably ready to receive you, and naturally expected that you would come directly to her, instead o

deny it if I should be questioned. I really do not understand concealment, Moritz--" She paused a moment, startled at the sudde

irritation. "It will not cost you your head, to be sure, but it will imperil your position in my house. Just as you

be said to alter his amiable mood, he gallantly offered his arm, and conducted

sh style. Below, a grating of delicate gilt-bronze tracery ran from pillar to pillar, separating the mosaic floor of the Moorish room from the white sand and green sod of the conservatory. Behind this grating there was a wealth of greenery and bloom: tufts of May-flower and Parma violets grouped ab

its silver spray just above the plumes in her hat. One small gloved hand lifted the heavy brown velvet skirt, which the evening light tinged with faint gold, while

astonishment, then half dropped the lids in a keen, inqui

this is!" exclaim

ecided manner. "It would be impossible for any one who knew old Frau Sommer to doubt for a moment that this stout girl, wi

he hearts of men had robbed her actions of feminine tenderness. With the same negligence with which she tendered a kiss to her sister after a separation of six years, she greeted the doctor with a "Good-e

owards the conservatory, exclaiming, with a mocking smile, "Grandmamma, our heiress presents he

whom men dub a favourite of fortune. Flora's half-malicious remark quickly altered this expression, however. The old lady knitted her brows disapprovingly, and a delicate flush tinged her pale face. "I do not remember having displayed any extraor

keen observer would have seen in her conduct a shy recoil from all contact, but the Frau President apparently regarded it as simply indicative of profound respect. She withdrew her hands, and t

illingly consented." As if unconsciously, she passed her slender fingers acro

with a gentle laugh of irony. "She, too, was always very independent. Your good fathe

to her care," Kitty added, with all the frank gaiety natural to her. Thi

rule never to object to any of his plans. But his nature was eminently refined; he thought much of a due sense of decorum. Might he n

s daughter's veins,"-and there was a wayward gleam in her brown eyes. "'To wand

to a laugh. "O child of mortality, you are delightfully na?ve!" she cried, clapping her hands "Yes, yes,-'To wander is the miller's joy,'" she quoted. "Only let our youngest make her début with such wo

in welcome to the doctor, smiling as she did so a smile that just showed the tips of

orn. The worthy Lukas has failed to inoculate her with a trifle of worldly wisdom,-there's the rub. Indeed, I am really glad yo

had flushed her cheeks. Thus, her head crowned with

" she cried, gaily. "No m

pose, copies sentimental verses, etc

rites neither verses nor romances: she has not the time; and yet she is full of poetry. Ah, you smile just as you used to do, Flora, with those deep lines at the corners of your mouth; but I no longer want to run away from the sneer. There is a combative vein in me, and I maintain that there is real poetry in the w

violets came raining against her br

s pressed to her panting bosom. "I should like to have my arms about your neck this minute, but-just look

tenderly embraced the poor, weak form, wisely suppressing the tear

inconvenient at times. She was aware of a sudden foreboding that with the advent of this vigorous girl a shadow was to fall upon her path. She hastily took off her hat and passed her fingers through the curls

ttle patient belongs to you," she said. "The poor thing has bee

ave heard her last words; she pointed indignantly to the wounded bird, and

r-crest!" exclaimed Henriette, brush

trace these abominable outrages to their source, and to prevent them, but their perpetrators are concealed in the ranks of two hundred angry men,"-he sh

usted the cloud of lace about her face and throat, as if her agitation made her insufferably warm. "Can you not see, Moritz,

window-sill when she opened the shutters this morning. She was forced to pick up the dirty scrap of paper with the tongs to let me read it, and it is now in her room, in case you

could easily understand how this queenly figure, apparelled in rich garments, with scornful lines about her m

sted in the social question," Flora continued, with a short laugh, "and I have

he was standing. "The most gifted pens have written unweariedly upon the subject, and the wav

"Ah! and what is to be done,

o collect laboriously all the evidence 'for and against' from the

her eyes lit up

roblem belongs to the women of the families of our capitalists, to their mild influence in modifying masculine severity, their gentle mediation, their wisdom. But very few take the trouble to reflect upon the matter, or, what is more important than all else,

but I am not used to put my alms directly into the hands of my beneficiaries myself, and thus it may easily occur that the number and value of my charities ar

ondemn them more severely than I," Doctor Bruck

that we women of the capitalist

onable, not one of those extravagant requirements that at present cast suspicion and discredit upon the cause of an entire party. T

indly, but in a curt, decisive tone, evidently intended to c

rejoined, with a faint smi

l order, threatening to shatter it. And why need she know by sight and contact what she described? Nonsense! Of what use, then, were intellect and imagination? Until to-day the doctor had never uttered a syllable with regard to her literary efforts,-"from timid reverence," she had supposed,-and now he suddenly treated her work with such scant courtesy,-he! "I cannot conceive, grandmamma," she exclaimed, with flashing eyes, "how you can dignify him with the title of idealist. To my mind, Bruck handles the great subject prosaically enough. According to his plan, we must instantly strip ourselves of every eleganc

lose," the doctor

urls stirred lightly, and her heavy

a real-estate owner, Moritz tells me. Seriously, have you fulfilled your yester

thre

savings in a spot that is to me the ne plus ultra of desolation, poverty, and repulsive ugliness. You certainly cannot have posse

eed cross th

th which the doctor raised his hand to interrupt her was a riddle hard to

re I can enjoy a leisure hour of study amid rural surroundings," he said, immediately, and

! A special summer retrea

th the green room, which you have a

is such constant noise from the street about a corner h

house-agent, and look for another," he

s if she would have stamped upon the floor with vexation, while her head was thrown back and

f the hospitality and breeding of your brother's household, Kitty," she said to the young girl. "No one has taken off your travelling-jacket or offered you a chair; you are forced instead, whether you will or not, to listen to useless discussions, and left standing upon the cold marble, w

change of words between the lovers. The councillor hastened to relieve his ward of her jacket, and Hen

heard with a sarcastic smile. This, however, he did not appear to notice. He shook hands with her and with the councillor; to Kitty he made a chivalric and respectful inclination, not

frown, as soon as the door had closed upon the pair. "You have reserved to yourself entire freedom to attain your end in the manner that shall best please yourself; so far so good,-you have hitherto encountere

use, only see that the Frau President Urach arises like a phoenix from the ashes. Forgive me, grandmamma; I will never do so again. The house is large enough; I ne

laimed, in a voice expressi

egard to your new honours. Heavens! how my poor shoulders are weighted

red up her train to go,-the

y to sentiment for a moment and imagining herself in love. She suddenly finds herself in a trap, and admits sorrowfully that the trite old doctrine, 'See

ter her in wide-eyed wonder. What a st