se and the
family have consented. Aunt Rosa."

"God's blessing on you! God's richest blessing!" she whispered, but she
shook her head and looked at him incredulously. "I shan't sleep a bit
to-night," she continued. "I am glad, I rejoice with all my heart, but
you might have told me to-morrow. It is done now. Good night, Frank. I
am glad indeed; this old house needs a mistress. God grant that she may
be a good one." And she pressed his hand as she left him.

He too went to his room. The lamp was burning on the round table and a
letter lay beneath it. Ah, true! the long-lost letter! He took it up
abstractedly--it was in Wolff's handwriting. He put it down again; what
could he want? Some business of course. Should he spoil this happy
hour with unpleasant, perhaps care-bringing news? No, let the letter
wait--till--but he had already taken it up and broken the seal.

[Illustration: "But he had already taken it up and broken the seal."]

It was a long letter and as he read, he bit his lips hard. "Pitiful
scoundrel!" he said at length, aloud, "it is well this letter did not
reach me sooner, or things would not have happened as they have." And
as if shrinking with disgust from the very touch of the paper, he flung
it into the nearest drawer of his writing-table.

"Vile wretches, who make the most sacred things a matter of traffic!"

He sat for a long time lost in thought, and a deep furrow marked itself
out between his brows. Then he wrote a long letter to his friend, the
judge, and gradually his face cleared again--he was telling him about
Gertrude.

CHAPTER VII.

"Good morning, Uncle Henry," said Gertrude, who was sitting at her
work-table in the bow-window. She rose as she spoke and went to meet
the stout little gentleman as he entered.

"Well, it is lucky that one of you at least is at home," he replied,
rubbing his glasses with his red handkerchief, after giving Gertrude's
hand a hearty shake. "I wonder if one of the women-kind except you
could possibly stay at home for a day. Mrs. Jenny is making calls, Mrs.
Ottilie is gone to a coffee party--it is easy to see that a strong hand
to hold the reins is wanting here."

Gertrude smiled.

"Uncle, don't scold, but come and sit down," she said. "You come just
in time for me; I had just written a little note to you to ask you to
come and see me. I need your advice."

"Oh! but not immediately, child, not immediately! I have just h