of the world. Therefore--"

"I understand," Edwin interrupted with a bitter smile. "You need
proceed no farther with his apology. Give my compliments to the worthy
gentleman, who will not permit his child to eat from the broad dish,
because his own mouth is formed to take nourishment from the narrow
bottle. But from what I know of the girl, she will find proper
sustenance in spite of this guardianship, though with rather more
difficulty. The only loser will be myself. Those grave thoughtful eyes
always had a good influence over me. But I might have known it would
come to this some day, so--without ill-feeling--farewell."

She called to him to detain him. But he had already passed through the
ante-room, without ill-feeling, as he had himself said, but not without
a sense of bitter sorrow. "And these are the best of them!" he
murmured. "If such things happen when the wood is green, what marvel is
it that the dry, dead branches and knots, which can nevermore put forth
leaf or blossom, crackle so merrily when a heretic is to be burned!"

He returned home and spent the remainder of the evening in quiet
conversation with Balder, with whom he soon regained his lost
cheerfulness, though the shadows would not wholly vanish from his
sorely wounded soul. Both slept very little that night. When the pump
handle creaked the next morning, they had been up a long time. Balder
at his turning lathe, and Edwin wandering about the room, now and then
turning the leaves of a book, both silent, as they usually were during
the first part of the day.

Reginchen brought up with the breakfast tray a carefully folded package
and a letter. They had just been left for Edwin.

When he had unfastened the strings and broken the seal, a beautiful
porcelain plate appeared, on which was painted a bouquet of corn
flowers, poppies, and wheat; on the edge, in gold letters, was the
inscription: "A memento from a grateful pupil." There was also a sealed
book, without any address, but the letter was from the old gentleman,
and ran as follows:

"My Deeply Honored Friend:

"_You already know what I have to communicate in these lines, which in
consequence of the great esteem, and love I have always felt for you, I
can hardly force my pen to write, I have never presumed to suppose that
I alone possess the truth; but to secure to my child the happiness that
I have enjoyed in my own life, is a matter that lies very near my
heart. If peace does not come to