h to give the spirit of envy a little "but" to hang on the
end of an acknowledgment of her comeliness.

The gamekeeper always kept near Tony while the dance was going on; and
in the evening he treated her to something that no peasant-girl of all
Nordstetten had ever enjoyed. The old baron, a stout and well-fed
personage, though very parsimonious, and unmerciful in hunting down
every poor farmer who took an armful of dry sticks out of the wood, was
very ambitious for the prosperity of a little private theatre which he
maintained at the manor-house, and to which he used to invite the grand
folks of the neighborhood. The gamekeeper was permitted to bring Tony
to see the theatricals.

She trembled till her teeth chattered as she walked up the hill on
which the manor-house, or rather castle, stands, with its drawbridge,
moat, and parapet, in the style of the Middle Ages. Without a breath,
and on tip-toe, she came into the hall, where the ladies and gentlemen
were already assembled. A place was assigned her not far back of the
orchestra. The lord-lieutenant's lady levelled her eyeglass at her for
a long time; Tony cast down her eyes, almost afraid to breathe. The
scar on her cheek tingled as if the eyes of the lady had opened the
wound afresh. The rise of the curtain came to her relief, and now she
listened with breathless attention. She shed tears over the fate of the
poor boy who died in prison, because he was accused of stealing, just
to save the credit of his master, to whom he owed a debt of gratitude;
and if she had been the master's daughter she certainly would not have
put off her disclosure until it came too late. When the curtain fell, a
deep sigh escaped her.

On the way home the gamekeeper put his arm around Tony's waist, and she
clung closely to him. She was quite overcome with mingled emotions. It
seemed as if all she felt, and the feigned events she had seen, were of
the gamekeeper's doing, and as if she owed it all to him; and, again,
she wished to go back to the old man and his sweet daughter, who were
now so happy together. The gamekeeper, too, was happy, for he obtained
Tony's promise to walk with him after church on Sunday afternoon.

Thus the gamekeeper's man[oe]uvres were far more successful than those
in which poor Sepper was engaged on horseback on the plains of
Ludwigsburg; and, before the latter got his honorable discharge from
the military, Tony had given him another discharge which he never
des