t were a----It is really too bad! Don't come any
more to me, and don't mix me up again in your concerns, that I say to
you! I shall for the future meddle in nothing of the kind. Don't you ask
me ever again for anything!'

"I was wounded, but still more distressed than wounded, and said, 'The
only thing which I shall ask from you, and shall ask for till I obtain
it, is the forgiveness of your Excellency! My error in this affair was
great; but after I had seen it, there was nothing for me to do but to
retrieve it as well as lay in my power, and then to bear the
consequences, even though they be as bitter as I now find them. Never
again shall I make any claim to your goodness--you have already done
more than enough for me. My intention is now to try if I cannot maintain
myself by my own powers as teacher. I intend to establish a school for
boys in Stockholm, whither I shall travel as soon as----'

"'Attempt, and travel, and do whatever you like!' interrupted his
Excellency, 'I don't trouble myself about it. I have occupied myself in
your affairs for the last time! If I were to get for you ten livings,
you would give all away the next moment to the first, best poor devil
that prayed you for them, with his full complement of wife and ten
children!

"'Lundholm, wash me the glass! I never drink out of a glass from which a
Bishop has drunk!'

"His Excellency had already turned his back upon me, and went again into
his chamber cursing his gout, without the slightest parting word to me.
The parrot, however, on the contrary, turned itself about on the stick,
and cried out with all its might, 'Adieu to thee! adieu to thee!'

"With this greeting, perhaps the last in the house of his Excellency, I
retired; but not without, I must confess, stopping a few moments on the
steps, and wetting the stones with my tears. It was not the loss of a
powerful patron which gave me so much pain, but--I had so admired this
man, I had loved him with such an actual devotion; I looked up to him as
to one of the noblest and most distinguished of men. He also seemed
really to like me--at least I thought so; and now all at once he was so
changed, so stern towards me, and as it seemed to me so unreasonable. It
actually gave me pain to find so little that was noble in him, so little
that was just! These were my feelings in those first bitter moments.
When I came to think over the whole event more calmly, I could almost
believe that he had received befor