d wrangling and discord in your
married life."

"Wrangling and discord because Seraphin loves me?"

"No--not exactly--but because he is a believer and you are an
unbeliever; in short, because he does not share your aims and views."

"How short-sighted you are! As you conceive of it, love is not a
passion; at most, only, a cool mood which cannot be modified by the
lovers themselves. Your apprehension would be well grounded concerning
that kind of love. But suppose love were something quite different?
Suppose it were a passion, a glowing, dazzling, omnipotent passion, and
that Seraphin really loved me, do you think that I would not skilfully
and prudently take advantage of this passion? Cannot a woman exert a
decisive and directing influence over the husband who loves her
tenderly? I have no fears because I do not view love with the eyes of a
trader. I hope and trust with the adjurations of love to expel from
Seraphin all superstitious spirits."

"How sly! Surely nothing can surpass a daughter of Eve in the matter of
seductive arts!" exclaimed he, laughing. "Hem--yes, indeed, after what
I have seen to-day, it is plain that the Adam Seraphin will taste of
the forbidden fruit of ripened knowledge, persuaded by this tenderly
beloved Eve. Look at him: there he wanders in the shade of the garden,
sighing to the rose-bushes, dreaming, of your majesty, and little
suspecting that he is threatened with conversion and redemption from
the kingdom of darkness."

CHAPTER IV.

HANS SHUND.

Hans Shund returned home from business in high feather. Something
unusual must have happened him, for his behavior was exceptional.
Standing before his desk, he mechanically drew various papers from his
pockets, and laid them in different drawers and pigeon-holes. The
mechanical manner of his behavior was what was exceptional, for usually
Hans Shund bestowed particular attention upon certain papers; his
soul's life was in those papers. Moreover, on the present occasion, he
kept shaking his head as if astonishment would not suffer him to remain
quiet. Yet habitually Hans Shund never shook his head, for that
proceeding betrays interior emotion, and Shund's neck was as hardened
and stiff as his usurer's soul. The other exceptional feature of his
behavior was a continuous growing, which at length waxed into a genuine
soliloquy. But Hans Shund was never known to talk to himself, f