you."

"I will draw," said Lenore; "I will do fancy work. Alas! I shall find it
difficult, Mr. Wohlfart, for I am not skillful. I do not care for lace
on either cuff or collar; but mamma, who is accustomed to have every
thing so beautiful, and in such order--oh, how sorry I am for mamma!"

Anton tried to comfort her.

"We were obliged to leave the capital," cried Lenore; "we should all
have perished if we had remained in that dreadful _entourage_. Our own
property in other hands, cold, distant faces on all sides, every where
false friends, smooth words, and a pity which maddened. I am delighted
that we are alone here. And even were we to suffer cold and hunger, I
could bear it better far than the shrugging of Madame Werner's
shoulders. I have learned to hate my fellow-creatures," said she,
vehemently. "When you have been with papa, I will come down, and then
you must show me the house, the farm, and the village. I want to see
where my poor pony is, and what the people about look like."

The baroness now returned, and led Anton into her husband's room.
Helpless and confused, the baron rose from his chair. Anton felt the
deepest compassion for him. He looked at his sunken face, bent figure,
and the black bandage over his eyes. He warmly declared his ardent wish
to be of use to him, and begged his indulgence if he had in any way
erred in judgment hitherto. Then he proceeded to tell him how he found
the estate, and what had been done up to the present time.

The baron heard the report almost in silence, only making a few short
observations in return. But when Anton proceeded, with the utmost
delicacy indeed, but still with the precision of a man of business, to
state the obligations under which the baron at present lay, and his
inadequate means of fulfilling them, the nobleman writhed in his chair
like a victim on the rack. And Anton keenly felt how painful it must
needs be to him to have a stranger thus introduced into his most secret
affairs--a stranger anxious to spare his feelings, it is true, but at
every moment betraying that anxiety, and so giving fresh offense. The
baroness, who stood behind her husband, looked on nervously at the
attempts he made to control his irritation, but at length she waved her
hand so significantly that Anton had abruptly to break off his report.

When he had left the room, the baron flung himself back in the utmost
excitement, and exclaimed, "You have set a trustee over me." He was
pe