still; and frequently, after he had left us of an evening, have I
overheard my mother express her wonder to Raper who and what he
had been, and by what strange events he was reduced to his present
condition. These remarks of hers at first showed me that whatever
revelations he might have made in his long interviews with her, he had
told little or nothing of his own story. Such was indeed the case, and
I can remember well a little scene, in itself unimportant and of no
consequence, which can both portray my mother's intense curiosity on
this theme, and display some traits of him for whom it was excited.

It happened that at the period when her little quarterly pittance came
due, my mother was confined to home by a slight feverish cold, and Herr
Klann, the banker and moneychanger of the village, was condescending
enough to come in person and hand her the amount. In spite of her narrow
fortune, my mother had always been treated with a marked deference by
the village, and Herr Klann demeaned himself on the occasion with every
show of courtesy and politeness. He indeed did not scruple to display
that he was the great depositary of riches for miles and miles around;
that all the relations of trade and commerce, all the circumstances
of family fortune,--the dowries of brides, the portions of younger
sons,--were in his charge and keeping. He talked much of the
responsibility of his station and its requirements, and, like many
others, while encomiumizing his secrecy, he exhibited the very opposite
quality. There was not a house in the village or its neighborhood of
which he did not incidentally relate some story or incident. He became,
in fact, candor itself in his confessions. It is but fair to own that my
mother looked most becomingly in her half invalid costume, and that the
little straw-wrapped flask of "Sieben-berger" with which she regaled him
was excellent. Herr Klann was a man to acknowledge both such influences.
He possessed the Hebrew weaknesses both as regards gold and beauty. He
therefore became largely confidential,--taking a survey of the whole
neighborhood, and revealing their circumstances with the minute anatomy
that a surgeon might have employed in displaying their structure. My
mother heard him with no peculiar interest till by accident he alluded
to the "Herr Robert;" it was a mere reference to the toll-house where he
lived, but the name at once awakened her attention.

"With him, I conclude," said she, "your