the different voices as they bade
each other good night, and learned by the uniform double step, that the
brothers Thaddaeus and Matthaeus occupied the room on his right, while
that on his left was assigned to the fat landed proprietor. His right
hand neighbors were perfectly quiet, and if their thoughts were as much
alike as their faces, they could not have profited by any exchange. The
stout gentleman was more troublesome. After spending half an hour in
undressing, during which he whistled, muttered to himself, and several
times, as if recollecting some story he had heard in the evening, burst
into a roar of laughter, he at last threw himself on his bed so
heavily, that it creakingly threatened to break under the burden, and
almost instantly began to snore so persistently, and in such a variety
of tones, that Edwin, who had been about to undress, renounced all idea
of doing so and determined to spend the night in an arm-chair at the
open window.

But even this became at last unendurable, and moreover the moist breath
of the fountain allured him out into the silent night. He left the room
without his hat and soon descended the little staircase and opened the
door, which he found fastened with only a light bolt.

The courtyard lay as silent and deserted in the faint glimmering
moonlight, as the garden on the opposite side. In order to reach the
latter, he was obliged to pass around the whole wing, the stables, and
the servant's rooms. As he glided by the little windows, he saw a dim
light twinkling in one and involuntarily paused before it. He could
look into a narrow chamber, where a young girl was sleeping, not in her
bed, but on a stool before a low table, with her head leaning against
the wall. A lantern beside her revealed her round, pretty face and
graceful figure. She did not seem to have fallen asleep over her work,
but while waiting for something or some one. The step pausing before
her window roused her. She started up, hastily pushed her hair back
from her forehead, and exclaimed as if still half asleep: "Is it you,
Your Excellency?" Suddenly seeming to distinguish the strange face, she
uttered a low exclamation, and upset the lantern. Then all was still.

Edwin walked on, wondering which of his table companions was the happy
man expected. But when he passed through the courtyard gate into the
park, all these thoughts vanished, and the magic of the silent night
took complete possession of his senses.

He