-arm," cried Fritz--"and some say his nose. Serve
him right, say I! Man to man, which is the better at that?"

"And then?" asked Otto.

"O, then Kuno carried him home; and they were the best of friends from
that day forth. I don't say it's a discreditable story, you observe,"
continued Mr. Gottesheim; "but it's droll, and that's the fact. A man
should think before he strikes; for, as my nephew says, man to man was
the old valuation."

"Now, if you were to ask me," said Otto, "I should perhaps surprise you.
I think it was the Prince that conquered."

"And, sir, you would be right," replied Killian seriously. "In the eyes
of God, I do not question but you would be right; but men, sir, look at
these things differently, and they laugh."

"They made a song of it," observed Fritz. "How does it go?
Ta-tum-ta-ra...."

"Well," interrupted Otto, who had no great anxiety to hear the song,
"the Prince is young; he may yet mend."

"Not so young, by your leave," cried Fritz. "A man of forty."

"Thirty-six," corrected Mr. Gottesheim.

"O," cried Ottilia, in obvious disillusion, "a man of middle age! And
they said he was so handsome when he was young!"

"And bald, too," added Fritz.

Otto passed his hand among his locks. At that moment he was far from
happy, and even the tedious evenings at Mittwalden Palace began to smile
upon him by comparison.

"O, six-and-thirty!" he protested. "A man is not yet old at
six-and-thirty. I am that age myself."

"I should have taken you for more, sir," piped the old farmer. "But if
that be so, you are of an age with Master Ottekin, as people call him;
and, I would wager a crown, have done more service in your time. Though
it seems young by comparison with men of a great age like me, yet it's
some way through life for all that; and the mere fools and fiddlers are
beginning to grow weary and to look old. Yes, sir, by six-and-thirty, if
a man be a follower of God's laws, he should have made himself a home
and a good name to live by; he should have got a wife and a blessing on
his marriage; and his works, as the Word says, should begin to follow
him."

"Ah, well, the Prince is married," cried Fritz, with a coarse burst of
laughter.

"That seems to entertain you, sir," said Otto.

"Ay," said the young boor. "Did you not know that? I thought all Europe
knew it!" And he added a pantomime of a nature to explain his accusation
to the dullest.

"Ah sir," said Mr. Gottesheim, "it is very pl