st be frank and sincere."

"My dear young lady, do you think I would say no? You tempt me not to
be sincere."

"Well then, I'll tell you--but please keep it to yourself won't
you?--Manna asked me who you were, and that's a great deal from her.
Oh, Herr Captain, wealth is a dreadful thing; people offer themselves
only for the sake of a girl's money--no, I didn't mean to say that--but
try to manage that Manna shall not be a nun."

"Can I prevent it?"

"Did you see the wooden shoes that the nuns wore? Horrid! Manna would
have to wear those shoes, and she has the prettiest little foot."

"But why shouldn't she be a nun, if she wants to?"

Lina was puzzled, she was not prepared for such an answer. She
remembered, too, that she was a good Catholic.

"Ah," she said plaintively, "I fancied to myself--I am a silly child,
am I not?--in old times a knight used to enter a castle disguised as a
squire or something else--well, I thought now the squire must be a
tutor and then--"

She could not go on with her fancy sketch, for her mother overtook
them, rather anxious lest her daughter had made some of her dreadfully
simple speeches in her walk with the stranger.

"May one know what you are talking about so earnestly?" asked the
Justice's wife. Lina drew a long breath, and put her hat-elastic in her
mouth, which her mother had often forbidden, as Eric answered with
great unconcern,--

"Your daughter has been reminding me that I was not very attentive when
we first met on the convent island. I must ask your pardon now, madame.
It relieves my mind of a burden of self-reproach to have the
opportunity of excusing myself to you, and I earnestly beg that you
will carry my apologies to your husband. One meets in travelling so
many people who think to make themselves of importance by being
ill-tempered, that one catches the unfriendly spirit, and harms himself
the most. If I had not had the good fortune to meet you again, a little
misunderstanding would have remained between us. Ah! on such a
beautiful evening, by your beautiful river, where people are so
friendly and cheerful, one longs to do some good to every one he meets,
and to say, Rejoice with me, dear fellow-mote, dancing in the sunlight,
for the little time which is called life."

Eric was very animated, and the Justice's wife much pleased with his
demeanor. The evening walk was most refreshing. Lina directly gave up
to her mother the place next Eric, and walked on the o