money dealings are few. He does
not appear to be wealthy."

"He is a mystery in every way, madam," replied Klann, "his very cash
does not come through a banker or an agent; he has no credit, no
bills--nothing. He comes down to me at times, say once a month or so,
to change a few gold pieces,--they are always 'Louis.' I remark, and
sometimes of the time of the late reign. They are good money, and full
weight invariably, that I must say."

"And what may be your own opinion of all this?"

"I can form none,--positively none, madam. Of course I need not say that
I regret the vulgar notion in the village that he is in communication
with supernatural agencies; neither you nor I, madam, are likely to fall
into this absurd mistake."

"And so you rather incline to suppose--" She drew out the words tardily,
and fixed on Herr Klann a look of ineffable softness and intelligence
together.

"I do, madam,--that is my private opinion," said he, sententiously.

"Would that account for the life he has been leading for some years
back,--should we have found him passing such a long term in isolation
from all the world?" asked she.

"I think so, madam, and I will tell you why. The agents employed by the
regency, and in the beginning of the present reign in France, were all
men of certain condition,--many of them belonged to high families, and,
having ruined their fortunes by extravagance, were fain to take any
occupation for mere subsistence. Some of them resided as nobles in
Vienna, and were received at the court of the Empress. Others gained
admittance to St. James's. They were supplied with money, both for
purposes of play and bribery; and that they used such means to good
account is now matter of history. When the game was played out, and they
were no longer needed by the government, such men were obliged to
retire from the stage whereon they had only played a part. The Duc de
Senneterre went into a monastery; Count Leon de Rhode set off for the
New World; and there was one taken ill in this very village, whose
name I now forget, who had gone into the priesthood, and was head of a
seminary in Flanders. What more likely, then, than that our friend at
the bridge yonder was some great celebrity of those times, of which I
hear he loves to talk and declaim?"

The hint thus thrown out made a deep impression on my mother. It served
to explain not only many circumstances of Herr Robert's position, but
also to account for the strange g