he ask leave of Veronica?

Before he slept, Dietrich had decided to meet Jost the next evening, and
close with his offer.

When Gertrude came down stairs early in the morning, she found the
breakfast ready, and Veronica dressed to go out.

"Wait just a moment," said the mother, "Dietrich will be down directly; I
hear him coming."

"I must be off," replied Veronica. She went towards the door, but turned
before going out. Her cheeks were flaming.

"Mother," she said, and her voice trembled, "in God's name, forbid him to
go to that dreadful place. He did not come home till one o'clock last
night." And she vanished. Gertrude gazed after her in surprise.

When Dietrich came down, he asked in his usual bright fashion, after
Veronica, and when his mother with some anxiety told him what the girl had
said, he made his explanation with such a frank, unembarrassed manner,
that her fears were quieted; for it was plain that he had nothing upon his
conscience. He said that he knew his mother would approve of his helping a
friend in need, and not the less if in so doing he should also help
himself. It was a scheme of this kind that he had been talking over, the
night before. Jost had to work very hard to make both ends meet, and
Dietrich thought that if by putting some money into his scheme, he could
help his old acquaintance to more profit with less labor, and at the same
time gain by it himself, his mother would be the last to blame him.

Gertrude was a soft-hearted woman. She answered her son that if there was
nothing wrong about this business, it was certainly a good thing to help
Jost, who had received nothing from his father, not even tools for his
trade, and who had seemed to have everything against him.

"With you it was very different, my boy," she said in conclusion. "Your
father left you an excellent business, and if you continue to work as you
have done, you will be very well off in a few years. How kindly the good
God has dealt with us, my son! We may hope for many happy days together!"

He agreed with her cordially, but he thought it as well not to unfold his
plans to her any farther. He said to himself that he was not going to do
anything wrong, certainly not; but his mother's ideas were a little
old-fashioned, and she wouldn't understand his schemes. He would surprise
her with his success.

CHAPTER VI.

LAME SABINA GIVES GOOD ADVICE.

Veronica's teacher, Sabina, had been a hunchback from her birth