society?"
continued Oscar.

Elsli confessed that she had discovered but one; the baker's boy who
brought fresh bread to the house every day; and she could not induce him
to join the society. "I am very sorry," she said, "that I could not do
as you asked me; but we are not allowed to go into the kitchen and talk
to the people that come there."

But Oscar was well satisfied. He only wanted to know at what time and
from which direction the baker's boy came every morning; and this Elsli
told him. "All right!" he said; "I can help myself, now."

Meanwhile, Fani and Emma were walking up and down by the river-side,
talking with constantly increasing eagerness. Emma had never been so
excited; she had had a tremendous surprise. Since Fani had left home,
she had never lost sight of her hope that he would become a great
artist. He had never mentioned the subject in his letters, and it had
been more and more evident that Mrs. Stanhope meant to educate the two
children, as she would have done her own, in various branches, without
any view to a special training for a life-work. Emma feared that Fani
would lose his ambition to be an artist, and she set herself to work to
counteract this danger. She had heard of a book called the "Lives of
Celebrated Painters," and she did not rest till her aunt promised to
procure it for her at Christmas; for she thought it would inspire Fani
with fresh enthusiasm to learn how artists had become great and
celebrated. She now brought the book with her, and told Fani about it,
in the hope that it would serve as a spur to arouse his dormant
energies. What was her astonishment when Fani pushed the book away, and
broke out passionately:--

"No, no; I will not read it! I will try not to think of it at all! You
see, Emma, I have a drawing lesson every day; only now of course I do
not, while you are here on a visit. And the more I draw, the more I want
to; I can do much better than I used to, and the teacher has told me
several times that I can certainly learn to be an artist."

Emma could not contain her joy at these words, and she cried out:--

"Now it's all right, Fani! You can be a painter, and I am sure you will
be a celebrated one, the most famous one in all the land. But why do not
you tell Mrs. Stanhope directly that you want to do that and nothing
else?"

Fani shook his head and looked very much depressed.

"It would be of no use. Mrs. Stanhope will not allow me to be an artist;
I am sure o