n family
after leaving Germany; and it was not till Ernest was, as we have said,
eighteen, that the silence of his home was broken by what seemed a voice
from the past. After many hindrances and delays, and passing through
many hands for which it had not been intended, a letter reached him from
a merchant in Philadelphia, who had been requested to institute a search
for Franz by his only brother. The old Rainer was dead, and the family
estate had descended to this brother, a scholar and a man of solitary
habits. Finding himself growing old in a lonely home, and retaining some
kindly memory of the brother in whose companionship his childhood had
been passed, he wished him to return to Germany, and again dwell with
them in the house of their fathers. To this Franz would by no means
consent. His nature was cast in too stern a mould to re-knit at a word
the ties which had been so violently sundered. He consented, however,
after some correspondence with his brother, to send Ernest to Germany,
to be educated there; at least, to receive such an education as could be
gained in four years; for he insisted that at the end of that time he
should return to America, and remain there while his father lived.
"After my death, if he choose to return to the home from which his
father was banished, he may," wrote the still resentful Franz.

And how was this change in all the prospects of his life received by the
young Ernest and his companion Meeta? By him with mingled feelings;
regret, joy, fear, hope, by turns ruled his soul. The regret was all for
Meeta and her mother; they were the sources of all his pleasant
memories; and as he gazed upon Meeta's hitherto bright face, now
clouded with sorrow, and kissed from her cheek the first tears he had
ever known her to shed for herself, he was ready to give up all his fair
prospects abroad and live with her for ever. Meeta herself, however,
gave a new direction to his thoughts, by generously turning from the
subject of her grief in parting, to dwell on the idea of the delight
with which they would meet again, and especially on her peculiar
pleasure in seeing Ernest come back "riding in a grand coach, with
servants following him on horseback, as she remembered to have seen in
Germany, and knowing enough to teach Parson Schmidt himself!" After
listening to such prophecies, Ernest no longer expressed any desire to
remain with Meeta; he contented himself, instead, with promising to
return as soon a