ore. But, on the other
hand, every cool word he said gave the lie to his looks--or did his
looks give the lie to his words? Oh, that I could solve the problem once
for all, and have done with it forever!

"And you, Miss Wedderburn--have you deserted Germany?"

"I have been obliged to live in England, if that is what you mean--I am
living in Germany at present."

"And art--_die Kunst_--that is cruel!"

"You are amusing yourself at my expense, as you have always delighted in
doing," said I, sharply, cut to the quick.

"_Aber, Fraeulein May!_ What do you mean?"

"From the very first," I repeated, the pain I felt giving a keenness to
my reproaches. "Did you not deceive me and draw me out for your
amusement that day we met at Koeln? You found out then, I suppose, what a
stupid, silly creature I was, and you have repeated the process now and
then, since--much to your own edification and that of Herr Helfen, I do
not doubt. Whether it was just, or honorable, or kind, is a secondary
consideration. Stupid people are only invented for the amusement of
those who are not stupid."

"How dare you, how dare you talk in that manner?" said he, emphatically,
laying his hand upon my shoulder, and somehow compelling my gaze to meet
his. "But I know why--I read the answer in those eyes which dare
everything, and yet--"

"Not quite everything," thought I, uncomfortably, as the said eyes sunk
beneath his look.

"Fraeulein May, will you have the patience to listen while I tell you a
little story?"

"Oh, yes!" I responded, readily, as I hailed the prospect of learning
something more about him.

"It is now nearly five years since I first came to Elberthal. I had
never been in the town before. I came with my boy--may God bless him and
keep him!--who was then two years old, and whose mother was dead--for my
wife died early."

A pause, during which I did not speak. It was something so wonderful to
me that he should speak to me of his wife.

"She was young--and very beautiful," said he. "You will forgive my
introducing the subject?"

"Oh, Herr Courvoisier!"

"And I had wronged her. I came to Friedhelm Helfen, or rather was sent
to him, and, as it happened, found such a friend as is not granted to
one man in a thousand. When I came here, I was smarting under various
griefs; about the worst was that I had recklessly destroyed my own
prospects. I had a good career--a fair future open to me. I had cut
short that career, annihilated