and therefore I have to ask you for temporary quarters for all
these as well as for myself."

"Just as you like, dear Fink," cried the baron, carried away by the
young man's enterprising spirit; "all the room we have is at your
disposal."

"Then allow me to suggest," said Anton, "that a room in the lower story
should be fitted up as a guard-room. There arms and implements can be
safely kept, and some of the men might nightly take up their quarters
there. The rest must be billeted in the farm-yard. In this way they will
get accustomed to consider the castle their place of rendezvous."

"Capital," said Fink, "so that the disturbance thus caused does not
prove an annoyance to the ladies."

"The wife and daughter of an old soldier will gratefully submit to any
measures taken for their safety," replied the baron, with dignity.

Accordingly, the new colony began to settle by universal consent. The
wagons were unloaded, the manager and his men accommodated for the
moment in the farm buildings.

The first thing they did was to free the furniture from its wrappings of
straw and canvas, and to carry it into the apartments of their new
master.

The castle servants stood round and looked with curiosity at its simple
style. One article, however, excited such loud admiration, that Lenore
joined the group of gazers. It was a small sofa of singular aspect. The
legs and arms were made of the feet of some great beast of prey, and
the cushions were covered with the bright yellow skin, all dotted over
with regular black spots. At the back and on the bolsters were three
large jaguars' heads, and the framework, instead of wood, was of
beautifully carved ivory.

"How exquisite!" exclaimed Lenore.

"If the thing does not displease you," said Fink, coolly, "I propose an
exchange. There is a small sofa in my room, on which I rest so
comfortably that I should like to keep it there. Will you allow your
people to carry off this monster to some other room in the castle, and
to leave me that sofa instead?"

Lenore could find no reply, and bowed a silent consent; and yet she was
dissatisfied with herself for not having at once declined such an
exchange. When she returned to her room, she found the jaguar-sofa
already there. That vexed her still further. She called Suska and the
man-servant, and desired them to move it elsewhere; but they so loudly
protested that the beautiful creature was nowhere more in keeping than
in their young lady's