that sort; but really, how tiresome he is, with
his short, cutting remarks, which come plump into the middle of a
conversation like so many stones!"

"I am a man of the people! my place is among the people!" said Delphin,
imitating Johnsen's voice and manner.

Fanny laughed, and clapped her hands. Madeleine laughed too; she could
not help it when Delphin said anything amusing. It is true she liked him
better when he was serious, as he was when they were alone; he had then
a frank, genuine manner that she found particularly attractive. She
could talk to Mr. Delphin on many subjects which she would never have
had the courage to mention to others. It was plain enough--that is to
Fanny, though not to Madeleine--that he always paid his visits, quite
accidentally, of course, whenever Madeleine was in the town.

As they sat chatting merrily on different subjects, Fanny, who always
kept her eye on passers-by, suddenly cried, "Just look! there is Jacob
Worse. I declare, he is passing the house without looking up; but I saw
him speak to some one at the door. I wonder who it could have been?"
and, with a woman's curiosity, she hurried over to the window.

"Ah!" said she, laughing, "I declare it was my little Frederick he was
talking to. Freddy," she cried, looking out of the window, "come up to
mother, and you shall have some chocolate."

Little Christian Frederick, a white-haired, sturdy little fellow of
between six and seven, came scrambling up the stairs. The maid opened
the door for him, and his mother asked, as she poured him out some
chocolate, "Who was it my Freddy was talking to downstairs there by the
door?"

"It was the big man," answered the child, looking at the cup with eager
eyes.

"The big man is Jacob Worse, and the little man is yourself, Mr.
Delphin," explained Fanny, laughing. "My son's manners are not yet quite
perfect. Did the big man ask who was up here with mother?"

"He asked if Aunt Rachel was in town," answered the child, putting out
his hand for the cup.

Madeleine did not exactly see what the others found so amusing, but she
joined in the laugh, because little Freddy was her darling.

"You are a dangerous woman," said George Delphin, as he took his leave;
"I must go and warn my friend Worse."

"Yes, you dare!" cried Fanny, holding up her taper finger threateningly
at him.

There was something which Madeleine could not exactly define, that she
did not quite like, about Fanny. She noticed