sister. She pressed
her brother to her breast, and took Otto's hand with kindness. She is
not beautiful! was the first impression she made upon him. His chamber
was vaulted, and the walls painted in the style of Gobelin tapestry;
they represented the whole of Olympus. On the left was an old
fire-place, with decorations and a gilt inscription; on the right
stood an antiquated canopy-bed, with red damask hangings. The view was
confined to the moat and the interior court. But a few minutes and Otto
and Wilhelm were summoned to table. A long gallery through two wings of
the hall, on one side windows, on the other entrances to the rooms,
led to the dining-room. The whole long passage was a picture-gallery.
Portraits the size of life, representing noble knights and ladies
shining forth in red powdered periwigs, children adorned like their
elders, with tulips in their hands, and great hounds by their sides,
together with some historical pieces, decorated the walls.

"Have we no garland on the table?" asked Sophie, as she entered the
dining-room with the others.

"Only a weak attempt to imitate my sister!" said Louise, smiling.

"But there is not a single flower in the garland! What economy! And yet
it is sweet!"

"How tasteful!" exclaimed Otto, examining the garland which Louise had
laid.

All kinds of green leaves, with their innumerable shades, a few yellow
linden-leaves, and some from the copper-beech, formed, through their
varied forms and colors, a tasteful garland upon the white table-cloth.

"You receive a thistle and a withered leaf!" whispered Wilhelm, as Otto
seated himself.

"But yet the most beautiful!" answered he. "The copper beech contrasts
so sweetly with the whitish-green thistle and the yellow leaf."

"My sister Sophie," said Louise, "lays us each day a different
garland;--it is such a pretty decoration! If she is not here we get
none; that would have been the case to-day, but when I learned that
Wilhelm was coming, and that we," she added, with a friendly glance,
"should have two other guests, I in great haste, made an attempt, and"--

"And wished to show how nicely it could be made without robbing your
flowers!" interrupted Sophie, laughing. "In reality, I am very cruel! I
cut all the heads of her favorites off. To-morrow, as a parody upon her
garland of to-day, will I make one of green cabbage and pea-shells!"

"Madeira or port wine?" asked the Kammerjunker, and led the conversation
from flower