ing the words,
"Dear Ludwig, love me," among his relics.

* * * * *

Since the new mistress's advent in the neighboring manor Count Vavel had
spent more time than usual in his observatory. At first suspicion had
been his motive. Now, however, there was a certain fascination in
bringing near to him with his telescope the woman with whom he had
exchanged only written communication. If he was so eager to behold her,
why did he not go to the manor? Why did he look at her only through his
telescope? She would certainly receive his visits; and what then?

This "what then?" was the fetter which bound him hand and foot, was the
lock upon his lips. He must make no acquaintances. Results might follow;
and what then?

The entombed man must not quit his grave. He might only seat himself at
the window of his tomb, and thence look out on the beautiful, forbidden
world.

What a stately appearance the lady makes as she strolls in her long
white gown across the green sward over yonder! Her long golden hair
falls in glittering masses from beneath her wide-rimmed straw hat. Now
she stops; she seems to be looking for some one. Now her lips open; she
is calling some one. Her form is quite near, but her voice stops over
yonder, a thousand paces distant. The person she calls does not appear
in the field of vision. Now she calls louder, and the listening ear
hears the words, "Dear Ludwig!"

He starts. These words have not come from the phantom of the
object-glass, but from a living being that stands by his side--Marie.

The count sprang to his feet, surprised and embarrassed, unable to say a
word. Marie, however, did not wait for him to speak, but said with eager
inquisitiveness:

"What are you looking at through that great pipe?"

Before Ludwig could turn the glass in another direction, the little maid
had taken his seat, and was gazing, with a wilful smile on her lips,
through the "great pipe."

The smile gradually faded from her lips as she viewed the world revealed
by the telescope--the beautiful woman over yonder amid her flowers, her
form encircled by the nimbus of rainbow hues.

When she withdrew her eye from the glass, her face betrayed the new
emotion which had taken possession of her. The lengthened features, the
half-opened lips, the contracted brows, the half-closed eyes, all these
betrayed--Ludwig was perfectly familiar with the expression--jealousy.

Marie had discovered that there wa