, Leah, you might receive the Herr
Doctor in your sitting-room on the other side of the entry, where your
writing-table stands; but I think we had better show our friend the
whole house, that he may himself choose the best auditory."

When Edwin took his leave a half hour later, he had seen every nook and
corner in the little house; the niche in the sitting-room where the
bust of Leah's mother stood, the green sofa before it, the ivy at the
window, the steps leading to the lagune, where a pleasant-looking old
maid-servant was busy with her washing; glancing toward her young
mistress, she gazed curiously at the guest, who seemed to be
illustrating Jean Paul's pun about the _Lehrmeister_, who might become
a _Mehrleister_, Edwin himself would never have dreamed of such a
thing. He was very gay, and talked brilliantly as if among old
acquaintances. Later, when he had taken his leave, and found himself in
the street, he again paused a moment by the railing which ran alongside
of the canal; he no longer thought it incomprehensible that the
occupants of this insignificant "hut" would not have exchanged it for a
palace.

CHAPTER VIII.

But he had not strolled far from the quay, when these newly made
friends vanished from his memory as suddenly as we blow out a candle,
and in their place appeared in most vivid hues, the vision of the
Unknown he had seen at the opera-house. The change was so sudden, that
he fairly started and stood still a moment to calm the beating of his
heart. If he had met her, bodily, on the lonely street, he could not
have been more astonished.

"A bad prospect for amendment," he said to himself, with a half
compassionate, half satisfied smile. He removed his hat and leaned over
the railing. Beneath him, the river flowed noiselessly on. A dead,
half-plucked bird floated past him, near a half-eaten apple. "Poor
thing," said Edwin, "you have endured to the end, and if not to be is
better than to be, you might be congratulated that never more will
bright-hued dainties tempt you, or hunger gnaw at your vitals when you
have naught else with which to satisfy its claims. Yet the sun is so
beautiful, and apples sweet to the taste, and I doubt not that your
worst nest was more comfortable than the filthy nothingness that bears
you away."

He listened. Few persons and no carriages passed this spot, but in the
distance he heard the hum and roar of the streets, through which r