t causes him to leave the house when you are absent,
and more than all, when I reproached him for his faults, and pointed to
the advantageous match I had in view for him, he had the boldness to say
that he would retain to himself the right of disposing of his own
heart."

"And do you believe, my dear, that you are the first cause of this
trouble?"

"I have felt grieved at the thought that it might be so, nothing
further."

"Well, well, dear Ulgenie, I will release you from this burden on your
conscience."

Mr. Fabian, who always found it a difficult matter to converse long upon
a serious matter, spoke the above words in a tone of voice especially
lively, for his heart was rejoiced at the thought that now he had an
opportunity of ridding himself of an unwelcome guest, without giving
cause for any one to believe that it was his own desire to do so.

"What are you babbling about?" inquired Mistress Ulrica, sharply, "what
do you know about my nephew's affairs?"

"Nothing further than that he has had a little love affair of his own,
which occupies his attention during those solitary walks you referred to
a moment ago."

"He! Gottlieb! Has he dared to fall in love!"

"Certainly."

"Impossible!"

"But I assure you that it is true, and if you will ask him why he so
frequently visits the valley, he certainly will not deny that he goes
there for the purpose of meeting handsome Nanna, the daughter of old Mr.
Lonner. He reads poetry to her, and under the pretence of teaching her
the guitar, he finds an opportunity of pressing her pretty little white
hands."

"If that is true. If he, while he remains under my roof, enters into
such a miserable intrigue, I will--for I consider it my duty as
occupying the place of his mother--I will to-morrow morning mar his
plans. But how did you learn this?"

This was a question which Mr. Fabian could not truthfully answer, for if
he should do so, he would have been obliged to state that he, after his
disagreeable parting with Magde, had taken a roundabout path towards
Almvik, which conducted him so near the valley that he discovered two
persons sitting beneath the tree near the fountain, and that from that
day forward he had closely watched Gottlieb's movements, so that he
might be enabled to hold a weapon over the one who might perhaps be a
spy upon his own actions.

It was therefore an accident which opened Mr. Fabian's eyes to
Gottlieb's crime; but he had not wished to play th