ant at Seraphin, and instantly the
smile was eclipsed under the cloud of an unwelcome discovery.

"I am on my way to the industrial exhibition," said he, "and I thought
I would pay you a visit in passing. I wish you not to put yourself to
any inconvenience, my dear Louise. You will have the goodness to make
me a little tea, this evening, which we shall sip together."

"I am overjoyed at your visit, and yet I am sorry, too."

"Sorry! Why so?"

"Because you are in such a hurry."

"It cannot be helped, my child. I am overwhelmed with work. Harvest has
commenced; no less than six hundred hands are in the fields, and I am
obliged to go to the exhibition. I must see and test some new machinery
which is said to be of wonderful power."

"Well, then, you will at least spare us a few days on your return?"

"A few days! You city people place no value on time. We of the country
economize seconds. Without a thought you squander in idleness what
cannot be recalled."

"You are a greater rigorist than ever," chided she, smiling.

"Because, my child, I am getting older. Seraphin, I wish to speak a
word with you before tea."

The two retired to the apartments which for years Mr. Conrad was
accustomed to occupy whenever he visited the Palais Greifmann.

"The old man still maintains his characteristic vigor," said Louise.
"His face is at all times like a problem in arithmetic, and in place of
a heart he carries an accurate estimate of the yield of his farms. His
is a cold, repelling nature."

"But strictly honest, and alive to gain," added Carl. "In ten years
more he will have completed his third million. I am glad he came; the
marriage project is progressing towards a final arrangement. He is now
having a talk with Seraphin; tomorrow, as you will see, the bashful
young gentleman, in obedience to the command of his father, will
present himself to offer you his heart, and ask yours in return."

"A free heart for an enslaved one," said she jestingly. "Were there no
hope of ennobling that heart, of freeing it from the absurdities with
which it is encrusted, I declare solemnly I would not accept it for
three millions. But Seraphin is capable of being improved. His eye will
not close itself against modern enlightenment. Servility of conscience
and a baneful fear of God cannot have entirely extinguished his sense
of liberty."

"I have never set a very high estimate on the pluck and moral force of
religious people," declared Grei