aith.

'Have a care,' cried Dorn. 'The suspicion can only spring from a
consciousness that you have deceived me, and that is not fair. I will
set you an example of ingenuousness. You wished a poor mortal to choose
among three daughters of heaven. Love, Hope, and Faith, were inscribed
upon your three notes. My good genius helped me to the best choice.
Love I already had deep in my heart from the moment I first saw you;
Hope visited me last evening; and I only lacked Faith in the certainty
of my good fortune. I drew it with this note.'

'A gallant officer well knows how to convert trifles into matters of
importance,' said the maiden, repelling the persevering youth. 'I wrote
the three names for you, merely in jest, Faith, Hope, and Charity,
because they follow each other in the calendar.'

'Only for that reason?' asked Dorn in a tender tone, throwing his arms
around her slender waist. Endeavoring to push him gently back with her
right hand, she dropped a note which Dorn caught up and read before she
could hinder him.

'Victoria!' shouted he. 'You have drawn my name, as I have drawn yours.
Who can doubt now that we are destined for each other? Obey the
friendly oracle, dear maiden, and become mine, as I am yours, in life
and death.'

He embraced the lovely creature more ardently, while she, no longer
able to withstand the solicitations of the youth and the pleadings of
her own heart, sank on his bosom, and exclaimed in low accents: 'Thine,
forever.'

CHAPTER V.

'Well, really, master Dorn, you begin the portentous new year upon
which we are entering in a very worldly manner,' cried a reproving
voice behind them. Faith shrieked with terror that those blessed
moments should have had a witness, and fled from the room. At the same
time Dorn, displeased at the awkward interruption, turned suddenly
round and stood facing the parson, who viewed him with severe and
reproachful looks. 'Is it well,' at length said the angry preacher, 'to
seduce the inconsiderate sister-in-law of your brother and benefactor
into an amorous intrigue?'

'You are right, reverend sir,' answered Dorn; 'that would be to do him
foul wrong; but to seek the honorable love of a maiden whom I hope one
day to lead to the altar as my beloved wife, appears to me to be well,
and is not forbidden in the holy scriptures.'

'You wish to espouse the maiden, then?' said the parson; 'that is quite
a different thing, and