y the scene she had just witnessed, was about to
leave the hall. On her way, she again passed the pedigree, and turning
her glowing countenance upon it, a black escutcheon met her eye. This
belonged to a lateral relation whom her father had only recently struck
out on account of a misalliance. With a gloomy foreboding she gazed at
it, then cast an anxious glance upon the one bearing her name, and
hurried sobbing from the hall.

About an hour after this, Tugendreich met the dangerous groom in the
anti-room of her father's closet. Their eyes flashed as they met each
other, but both immediately looked on the ground while a blush, like
the sky tinged by the rising sun, overspread her cheeks. "The
gardener's little Rosa has recovered from her fright," she whispered
softly, "I have just left her."

"May heaven reward you, Fraeulein, that sent you upon earth as a
ministering reconciling angel!" cried the groom with transport.

"But promise me, Axel, not to ride so furiously again; I have been in
great anxiety about thee," stammered Tugendreich, becoming confused in
the midst of her speech, as she had not yet settled in her mind as to
whether she should address this groom by "thee," or "you."[1]

"About me? This makes me indescribably happy," said Axel with delight,
and suddenly raised her beautiful hand to his lips, imprinting a fiery
kiss on it. At this she appeared angry, withdrew her hand from his
bold grasp, though a minute too late, and saying, "You forget
yourself," quickly left the room.

Axel's eyes followed her with rapture, and he then entered his master's
room and found him in company with Magister Talander, his spiritual
adviser and factotum, playing chess, and exchanging high words. In
vain did the excited magister prove from _Damiano, Phillippo, Carrera_,
and _Gustavo Seleno_, that the adversary's piece which threatened one
of the squares over which the king must be moved, was one of the five
impediments to castling the king. In vain did he assert that
_Palmedes, Xerxes, Satrenshah_, and even _Tamerlan_ could not have
played otherwise. The baron stood to his own opinion, and said, the
absurdity of the rule was so evident, that even his groom Axel, if he
had but a notion of the moves, could not but see it.

"I know the moves, and you are wrong," interrupted Axel. With open
mouth, the master wondered at the impudence of his servant, who quietly
added: "You forget that the question here is about a p