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take their coffee in the sitting-room. There, between the pictures and
plaster-casts with which the walls were covered, stood an old
pianoforte. It had not been opened for years; but now at Helen's
request, Dr. Hansen had seated himself before it, and played a few
national melodies from the North.

He then sang some of the songs, with a voice that, if somewhat
uncultivated, was very musical.

Helen had taken her work to the window, where Walter stood gazing out
into the street, without taking any notice of what was passing.

Under cover of the music she whispered a few questions. What ailed
him?--Had the Meister been scolding him? had he been quarrelling with
Peter Lars?--Peter's absence she thought suspicious.

Walter only shook his head; and at last, seized with an unaccountable
fit of restlessness, he jumped up, and was about to escape for
a solitary walk, when just then the door opened, and visitors
entered. They were relations of the Meister's, Lottchen Klas and her
mother--Lottchen Ellas, who, but yesterday, had stood so high in her
partner's estimation. To-day he only felt annoyed, when the little maid
came smiling in under her mother's wing, with a shy look of
satisfaction, that made him conscious that his defection would be a
great offence to her especially. However he hardly spoke a civil word,
to either mother or daughter; and when Helen began some playful remark
about their party of the night before, he fetched a book from the
cupboard, and in the face of all good breeding, he settled himself to
read, as though he had been in the remotest solitude.

Not long after, somebody proposed a walk, and, with the exception of
the old neighbour, who took his leave, the whole company was set in
motion. The mother walking in front, with Helen and Dr. Hansen; Walter
following with his pretty little partner. But he was as taciturn as
before--all along the peopled streets, and out by the town-gate to a
garden where the higher among the burghers were wont to enjoy their
Sunday afternoons,--he never spoke one word; he even neglected to bow
to passing acquaintances;--he had no eye for the dismayed little face
by his side, that grew cloudier and cloudier, until a shower of tears
appeared most imminently impending. Fortunately, before this crisis,
one of her yesterday's partners came up to the rescue, and did duty
both for himself and Walter.

Now, if he had been so minded, he might have stolen away and relieved
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