ed me as your advocate;
and though it may pain me to make a full confession, you shall hear
everything."

With this I told her all,--all, from my first hour of meeting her at the
railway station, to my last parting with her at Schaffhausen. I tried to
make my narrative as grave and commonplace as might be, but, do what I
would, the figure in which I was forced to present myself, overcame all
her attempts at seriousness, and she laughed immoderately. If it had not
been for this burst of merriment on her part, it is more than probable
I might have brought down my history to the very moment of telling, and
narrated every detail of my journey with Vaterchen and Tintefieck. I
was, however, warned by these circumstances, and concluded in time to
save myself from this new ridicule.

"From all that you have told me here," said she, "I only see one
thing,--which is, that you are deeply in love with this young lady."

"No," said I; "I was so once, I am not so any longer. My passion has
fallen into the chronic stage, and I feel myself her friend,--only her
friend."

"Well, for the purpose I have in mind, this is all the better I
want you, as I said, to place my letter in her hands, and, so far as
possible, enforce its arguments,--that is, try and persuade her that to
reject our offers on her behalf is to throw upon us a share of the great
wrong our uncle worked, and make us, as it were, participators in the
evil he did them. As for myself," said she, boldly, "all the happiness
that I might have derived from ample means is dashed with remembering
what misery it has been attended with to that poor family. If you urge
that one theme forcibly, you can scarcely fail with her."

"And what are your intentions with regard to her?" asked I.

"They will take any shape she pleases. My brother would either enable
her to return home, and, by persuading her mother to accept an annuity,
live happily under her own roof; or she might, if the spirit of
independence fires her,--she might yet use her influence over her mother
and sister to regard our proposals more favorably; or she might come
and live with us, and this I would prefer to all; but you must read my
letter, and more than once too. You must possess yourself of all its
details, and, if there be anything to which you object, there will be
time enough still to change it."

"Here he is,--here is the portrait of our lost sheep," said Crofton,
now entering with a miniature in his hand.