lways enlivened and
made happy by any new view, and any enlargement of his knowledge.

"Herr Priest, and you also, Frau Professorin," cried the Doctor, who
was to-day more talkative than ever, "with your great experience of
life, you two could render a great service to a friend of mine."

"I?" the priest asked.

"And I?" asked the Professorin.

"Yes, you. Our century has entered upon a wholly new investigation of
the laws of the world; and things, circumstances, sentiments, which one
would not believe could ever be caught, are now bagged in the
statistical net, and must be shown to be conformable to laws. Nothing
has been esteemed freer and more incalculable, even incomprehensible,
than love and matrimony, and yet there are now exact statistical tables
of these; there is an iron law, by which the number of divorces in a
year is determined. My friend now goes a step farther, and from facts
of his own observation has deduced the conclusion, that marriages in
which the man is considerably older than the wife, present a greater
average of happy unions than so-called love-matches; now, Herr Priest,
and you also, Frau Professorin, think over the list of persons you are
acquainted with, and ask yourselves whether you find any confirmation
of this law."

The Professorin was silent, but the Priest said that religion alone
consecrated marriage; religion alone gave humility, which was the only
sure basis of all beautiful intercourse between men themselves, and
also between man and God.

The Priest succeeded, continuing the conversation, in diverting it
entirely from the subject so flippantly introduced.

Sonnenkamp stated that the Major wished to have a grand masonic
celebration in the spacious knight's hall of the castle, when it was
completed; he asked in what relation the reigning Prince stood towards
Masonry.

Clodwig replied that he himself had formerly belonged to the order, and
that the Prince was at present a protector of the brotherhood, without
being a member.

The conversation was carried on in groups, and they left the table in a
cheerful mood. The Doctor took leave.

It was now settled that the Aunt should go to Wolfsgarten; and, in
order to give her time to make preparation for leaving, Clodwig and
Bella were to remain over night and take her in the carriage with them
on the morrow.

Bella was in very good spirits, and, on Sonnenkamp's offering to
present her with a parrot, requested that it might be t