made
over his luggage to the carrier, and, with his father's letter in his
pocket, took his way to the great city.

CHAPTER II.

The new-mown grass was already fading in the sun when Anton shook the
hand of the neighbor who had accompanied him as far as the nearest
station to the capital, and then walked off merrily along the high road.
The day was bright, the mower was heard whetting his scythe in the
meadows close by, and the indefatigable lark sang high overhead. On all
sides rose church-towers, central points of villages buried in woods,
near many of which might be seen a stately baronial residence.

Anton hurried on as if his feet were winged; the future lay before him
sunny as the plain, a life of radiant dreams and evergreen hopes; his
heart beat high, his eyes beamed, he felt intoxicated by the beauty and
the fragrance around him. Whenever he saw a mower, he called out to him
that it was a lovely day, and got many a friendly greeting in return.
The very birds seemed as though they congratulated him, and cheered him
onward.

He now took a footpath that led through a meadow, crossed a bridge, and
found himself in a plantation with neatly-graveled paths. As he went on,
it more and more assumed the character of a garden; a sudden turn, and
he stood on a grass-plot, and saw a gentleman's seat, with two side
towers and a balcony, rise before him. Vines and climbing roses ran up
the towers, and beneath the balcony was a vestibule well filled with
flowers. In short, to our Anton, brought up as he had been in a small
town, it all appeared beauteous and stately in the extreme. He sat down
behind a bushy lilac, and gave himself up to the contemplation of the
scene. How happy the inhabitants must be! how noble! how refined! A
certain respect for every thing of acknowledged distinction and
importance was innate in the son of the accountant; and when, in the
midst of the beauty around him, his thoughts reverted to himself, he
felt utterly insignificant, a species of social pigmy scarcely visible
to the naked eye.

For some time he sat and looked in perfect stillness; at last the
picture shifted. A lovely lady came out on the balcony clad in light
summer attire, with white lace sleeves, and stood there like a statue.
When a gay paroquet flew out of the room and lighted on her hand,
Anton's admiration went on increasing; but when a young girl followed
the bird, and wound her arms around the lovely lady's neck, and