e was
showered both upon him and the journal which, for the time, he
represented. One more experience of a similar nature terminated his
career as a journalist; I dared no longer espouse his cause and he
was dismissed in disgrace. For some weeks he vanished from my horizon,
and I began to hope that he had again set his face toward the Old
World, where talents of the order he possessed are at higher premium
in the social market. But in this hope I was to be grievously
disappointed.

V.

One day, just as I had ordered my lunch at a restaurant much
frequented by journalists, a German, named Pfeifer, one of the largest
stockholders in our paper, entered and seated himself at the table
opposite me. He was a somewhat puffy and voluminous man with a very
round bald head, and an air of defiant prosperity about him. He had
retired from the brewery business some years ago, with a very handsome
fortune.

"I have been hunting for you high and low," he began in his native
tongue. "You know there is to be a ball in the _Turnverein_ to-morrow
night,--a very grand affair, they say. I suppose they have sent you
tickets."

"Yes, two."

"And are you going?"

"I had half made up my mind to send Fenner or some one else."

Mr. Pfeifer here grew superfluously confidential and related to me in
a mysterious whisper his object in seeking me. The fact was, he had a
niece really _ein allerliebstes Kind_, who had come from Milwaukee to
visit him and was to spend the winter with him. Now, to be honest, he
knew very few young gentlemen whom he would be willing to have her
associate with, and the poor child had set her heart on going to the
_Turn_-ball to-morrow. Would I kindly overlook the informality of his
request, and without telling the young lady of his share in the
proceeding, offer her my escort to the ball? Would I be responsible
for her and bring her home in good season? And to avert Fraulein
Pfeifer's possible suspicions, would I come and dine at his house
to-night and make her acquaintance?

To refuse the acquaintance of a young lady who even remotely answered
to the description of "a very lovely child," was contrary to my
principles, and I need not add that I proved faithful to them in the
present instance.

A German, even if he be not what one would call a cultivated man, has
nevertheless a certain sombre historic background to his life which
makes him averse to those garish effects of barbaric splendor that
impress on