ow what to think of his silence," said Anton; "the mails are
not interrupted, and other letters come. I almost fear that some
misfortune may have happened to the travelers."

Lenore shook her head. "Can you imagine any misfortune happening to Herr
von Fink?" inquired she, digging away.

"It is, indeed, difficult to imagine," said Anton, laughing; "he does
not look as if he would easily allow any ill luck to settle down upon
him."

"I should think not," replied Lenore, curtly.

Anton was silent for a while. "It is singular that we should not yet
have talked over the change that Fink's remaining here will occasion,"
said he, at length, not without some constraint, for he had a vague
consciousness that a certain degree of embarrassment had risen up on
Lenore's side as well as his own--a light shadow on the bright grass,
cast no one knows from whence. "Are you, too, satisfied with his sojourn
here?"

Lenore turned away and twisted a twig in her fingers. "Are you
satisfied?" asked she, in return.

"For my part," said Anton, "I may well be pleased with the presence of
my friend."

"Then I am so too," replied Lenore, looking up; "but it really is
strange that Mr. Sturm should not have written either. Perhaps,"
exclaimed she, "they will never return."

"I can answer for Karl," said Anton.

"But the other? He looks as changeable as a cloud."

"He is not that," replied Anton; "if he has difficulties to contend
with, all the energy of his nature awakes; he is only bored by what
gives him no trouble."

Lenore was silent, and dug on more zealously than ever. Just then a hum
of cheerful voices sounded from the farm-yard, and the laborers ran from
their dinner to the road. "Mr. Sturm is coming," cried one of them to
the diggers. A stately procession was seen moving through the village
toward the castle. First of all came half a dozen men all dressed alike,
in gray jackets, wearing broad-brimmed felt hats set on one side, and
decorated with a green sprig, a light gun on their shoulder, and a
sailor's cutlass at their sides. Behind them came a series of loaded
wagons: the first full of shovels, spades, rakes, and wheelbarrows
symmetrically arranged; the latter laden with sacks of meal, chests,
bundles of clothes, and household furniture. The procession was closed
by a number of men dressed like those above described. As they neared
the castle, Karl and a stranger sprang down from the last wagon; the
former placed himself