acers."

"What would that be?" inquired she with some amazement.

"The loss of my good opinion of men," answered he sadly. "What I have
heard, miss, is base and vile beyond description." And he recounted for
her in detail what had taken place.

"Such things are new to you, Mr. Seraphin; hence your astonishment and
indignation."

The youth felt his soul pierced because she uttered not a word of
disapproval against the villainy.

"Carl's object was good," continued she, "in so far as his man[oe]uvre
has procured you an insight into the principles by which the world is
just now ruled."

"I would be satisfied to lose the wager a thousand times, and even
more, did I know that the world is not under such rule."

"It is wrong to risk one's property for the sake of a delusion," said
she reprovingly. "And it would be a gross delusion not to estimate men
according to their real worth. A proprietor of fields and woodland,
who, faithful to his calling, leads an existence pure and in accord
with nature's laws, must not permit himself to be so far misled by the
harmlessness of his own career as to idealize the human species. For
were you at some future day to become more intimately acquainted with
city life and society, you would then find yourself forced to smile at
the views which you once held concerning the present."

"Smile at, my dear miss? Hardly. I should rather have to mourn the
destruction of my belief. Moreover, it is questionable whether I could
breathe in an atmosphere which is unhealthy and destructive of all the
genuine enjoyments of life!"

"And what do you look upon as the genuine enjoyments of life?" asked
she with evident curiosity.

He hesitated, and his childlike embarrassment appeared to her most
lovely.

"I beg your pardon, Mr. Seraphin! I have been indiscreet, for such a
question is allowable to those only who are on terms of intimacy." And
the beauty exhibited a masterly semblance of modesty and amiability.
The artifice proved successful, the young man's diffidence fled, and
his heart opened.

"You possess my utmost confidence, most esteemed Miss Greifmann!
Intercourse with good, or at least honorable, persons appears to me to
be the first condition for enjoying life. How could any one's existence
be cheerful in the society of people whose character is naught and
whose moral sense expired with the rejection of every religious
principle?"

"Yet perhaps it might, Mr. Seraphin!" rejoined she, w