t I don't mind. There is a
story told about that tree."

Then she told him what we already know: about the old castle, and about
the peddler and the girl with the geese, who had met at this spot for
the first time and were the ancestors of the noble family to which the
young baroness belonged. "The good old folks would not be ennobled,"
said she. "Their motto was 'Everything in its right place,' and they
thought it would not be right for them to purchase a title with money.
My grandfather, the first baron, was their son. He was a very learned
man, known and appreciated by princes and princesses, and was present at
all the festivals at court. At home, they all love him best, but I
scarcely know why. There seems to me something in the first old pair
that draws my heart towards them. How sociable, how patriarchal, it must
have been in the old house, where the mistress sat at the spinning wheel
with her maids while her husband read aloud to them from the Bible!"

"They must have been charming, sensible people," said the tutor, and
then the conversation turned upon nobles and commoners. It was almost as
if the tutor did not belong to an inferior class, he spoke so wisely
upon the purpose and intention of nobility.

"It is certainly good fortune to belong to a family that has
distinguished itself in the world, and to inherit the energy which spurs
us on to progress in everything noble and useful. It is pleasant to bear
a family name that is like a card of admission to the highest circles.
True nobility is always great and honorable. It is a coin which has
received the impression of its own value. It is a mistake of the present
day, into which many poets have fallen, to affirm that all who are
noble by birth must therefore be wicked or foolish, and that the lower
we descend in society the oftener we find great and shining characters.
I feel that this is quite false. In all classes can be found men and
women possessing kindly and beautiful traits.

"My mother told me of one, and I could tell you of many more. She was
once on a visit to a nobleman's house in the town; my grandmother, I
believe, had been brought up in the family. One day, when my mother and
the nobleman happened to be alone, an old woman came limping into the
court on crutches. She was accustomed to come every Sunday and always
carried away a gift with her. 'Ah, there is the poor old woman,' said
the nobleman; 'what pain it is for her to walk!' And before my m