ation. The children had no eye
for such matters, but rushed shrieking with delight round the tree,
whose branches shed such gorgeous presents on them. Willy got a hussar
uniform, with sword, knot, boots and spurs all complete, and would not
rest till he had been taken to his room and dressed in it, and then
appeared before the company in this martial attire. His mother's eye
grew dim with pride and joy when Herr von Swerte lifted up the little
warrior to kiss him, and said heartily: "Well, my dear Herr Haber, he
will make a smart cavalry officer some day!"

At dinner Wilhelm found himself beside Frau Brohl. The old lady was
still fond of him, and never forgot how well he had behaved at a
critical moment, and with what modest self-perception he had
acknowledged that he was not the husband for her granddaughter.

Searching about for something agreeable to say to him, or for a subject
that would be sure to interest him, she suddenly remembered one, and
said, between the fish and the roast, "Have you heard the story about
your old flame, Frau Von Pechlar?"

Wilhelm started and changed color.

Frau Brohl never noticed, and continued in her soft complaining voice:
"Your guardian angel saved you there, Herr Doctor. You would have come
off nicely if you had married Fraulein Ellrich. There have been all
sorts of rumors for years, but now it has come to an open scandal. She
has left Herr von Pechlar and gone off with a count, who has been
hanging about her for some time. They say she has gone to Italy with
him."

Wilhelm made no reply, but he was surprised himself to feel how deeply
the information affected him, so that he could not breathe freely all
the evening, and although it was late before he got to bed, he could
not sleep for hours, thinking of the girl he had once loved, who was
now rushing blindly down the path of dishonor. Why should the thought
pain him so much? Do heart wounds heal so slowly and imperfectly that a
rough touch can make the scar burn and throb after long years? Or was
it regret at the besmirching of a picture which till now had shone so
purely and been so sweetly framed in his memory? He did not know, but
for days it depressed him to the verge of melancholy.

In return for the hospitality he had received New Year's Eve was spent
at Herr von Swerte's. The whole Haber family, with Frau Brohl and Frau
Marker--the white grandmamma and the brown grandmamma, as Willy called
them, to distinguish them fr