st subjugation in an age of enlightenment--all this presents
itself to me in the most repulsive and lamentable guise."

"You must drive those horrible phantoms from your mind," replied
Louise.

"They are not phantoms, but the most fearful reality."

"They are phantoms, Mr. Seraphin, so far as your feelings exaggerate
the evils. Those factory serfs have no reason to complain. There is
nothing to be done but to put up with a situation that has
spontaneously developed itself. It is useless to grow impatient because
difference of rank between masters and servants is an unavoidable evil
upon earth." A servant entered to call them to dinner.

At her side he gradually became more cheerful. The brightness of her
eyes dispelled his depression, and her delicate arts put a spell upon
his young, inexperienced heart. And when, at the end of the meal, they
were sipping delicious wine, and her beautiful lips lisped the
customary health, the subdued tenderness he had been feeling suddenly
expanded into a strong passion.

"After you will have done justice to your diary," said she at parting,
"we shall take a drive, and then go to the opera."

Instead of going to his room, Seraphin went into the garden. He almost
forgot the occurrences of the day in musing on the inexplicable
behavior of Louise. Again she had not uttered a word of condemnation of
the execrable doings of progress, and it grieved him deeply. A
suspicion flitted across his mind that perhaps Louise was infected with
the frivolous and pernicious spirit of the age, but he immediately
stifled the terrible suggestion as he would have hastened to crush a
viper that he might have seen on the path of the beautiful lady. He
preferred to believe that she suppressed her feelings of disgust out of
regard for his presence, that she wisely avoided pouring oil upon the
flames of his own indignation. Had she not exerted herself to dispel
his sombre reflections? He was thus espousing the side of passion
against the appalling truth that was beginning faintly to dawn upon his
anxious mind.

But soon the spell was to be broken, and duty was to confront him with
the alternative of either giving up Louise, or defying the stern
demands of his conscience.

The brother and sister, thinking their guest engaged with his diary,
walked into the garden. They directed their steps towards the arbor
where Gerlach had seated himself.

He was only roused to consciousness of their proximity by the