ake by that happy consolation!"

Madame Dort experienced such relief from the cheering aspect in which
the Burgher's explanation had enabled her now to look upon the news of
Fritz's wound, that her natural feelings of hospitality, which had been
dormant for the while, asserted themselves in favour of her timely
visitor, who in spite of his curiosity had certainly done her much good
in banishing all the ill effects of her fainting fit.

"Will you not have a glass of lager, Herr Jans?" said she.

"Mein Gott, yes," promptly returned the little man. "Much talking makes
one dry, and beer is good for the stomach."

"Lorischen, get the Burgher some lager bier," ordered Madame Dort, on
her invitation being accepted, the old nurse proceeding to execute the
command with very ill grace.

"The Lord only knows when he'll leave now, once he starts guzzling beer
in the parlour! That Burgher Jans is getting to be a positive nuisance
to us; and I shall be glad when our poor wounded Fritz comes home, if
only to stop his coming here so frequently--the gossipping little time-
server, with his bowing and scraping and calling me his `dearest
maiden,' indeed--I'd `maiden' him if I had the chance!"

Lorischen was much exasperated, and so she grumbled to herself as she
sallied out of the room.

However, much to her relief, the "fat little man" did not make a long
stay on this occasion, for he took his leave soon after swallowing the
beer. He was anxious to make a round of visits amongst his
acquaintances, to retail the news that Fritz was wounded and lying in a
hospital at Mezieres, near Metz, for he had read it himself in the
letter, you know! He likewise informed his hearers, although he had not
so impressed the widow, that they would probably never see the young
clerk of Herr Grosschnapper again in Lubeck, as his case was so
desperate that he was not expected to live! His story otherwise,
probably, would have been far less interesting to scandal-mongers, as
they would have thus lost the opportunity of settling all the affairs of
the widow and considering whom she would marry again. Of course, they
now decided, that, as she had as good as lost both her sons and had a
nice little property of her own, besides being comparatively not old, so
to speak, and not very plain, she would naturally seek another partner
to console herself in her solitude--Burgher Jans getting much quizzed on
this point, with sly allusions as to his being the