cocks are still
Chang'd about, believe't who will.
OLD PROVERB.

The apparition which so opportunely arrested the attention of Albert on
opening the door, was no other than the old nurse, Rosel, hastily
rising from a bent position she had taken up at the keyhole. She was
one of those old servants, who, having been brought up in the family
from her youth, was firmly rooted in it, and now formed one of its
principal branches. Since the death of the Lady of Lichtenstein,
Bertha's mother, she had shewn her attachment to the family in the
assiduous care she had taken in bringing up her charge. Having passed
through the different gradations, from nursery-maid to nurse, from
nurse to housekeeper, she now occupied the more important post of
governess and confidant to her foster-child. Greatly jealous of others,
and ambitious to secure all authority in her own hands, she filled for
many years the different important domestic situations of the castle,
making herself universally necessary in all its concerns. Having gained
an ascendancy over her master, who never found fault with her, at least
before others, she gave out that she was essential in the management of
the domestic affairs of the family, that without her superintendence,
things could not go on right.

Of late, she had not lived on the best terms with her young mistress.
In the days of her childhood and first youth, she had possessed her
whole confidence. Even in Tuebingen she was partly in the secret of
Bertha's love; and old Rosel took such an interest in every thing
that related to her child, as she always called her, as to speak
in the first person plural, "_We_ love Albert von Sturmfeder most
tenderly,"--or "_Our_ heart is ready to break in parting from him."

Two circumstances, however, tended to weaken this confidence. The young
lady remarked, that her nurse was too fond of gossiping, that she had
been even watching her movements, and had been twattling with others
about her intimacy with Albert; she, therefore, grew more reserved
towards the old woman, who very soon guessed the cause of it. But when
the journey to Ulm was undertaken, and she had provided herself with a
new woollen-stuff gown, and a superb brocade cap, upon the occasion,
her disappointment knew no bounds upon being ordered to remain at
Lichtenstein. This widened the breach between her and Bertha, for she
attributed the cause of her not accom