rplexing doubt "These good friends agree
with me, that, in a case like this, it becomes even our birth to forget
the origin of the youth. He who has saved the lives of the two last of the
Willadings at least deserves to have some share in what is left of them.
Here is my good Grimaldi, too, ready to beard me if I will not consent to
let him enrich the brave fellow--as if we were beggars, and had not the
means of supporting our kinsman in credit at borne. But we will not be
indebted even to so tried a friend for a tittle of our happiness. The work
shall be all our own, even to the letters of nobility, which I shall
command at an early day from Vienna; for it would be cruel to let the
noble fellow want so simple an advantage, which will at once raise him to
our own level, and make him as good--ay, by the beard of Luther! better
than the best man in Berne."

"I have never known thee niggardly before, though I have known thee often
well intrenched behind Swiss frugality;" said the Signor Grimaldi,
laughing. "Thy life, my dear Melchior, may have excellent value in thine
own eyes, but I am little disposed to set so mean a price on my own, as
thou appearest to think it should command. Thou hast decided well, I will
say nobly, in the best meaning of the word, in consenting to receive this
brave Sigismund as a son; but thou art not to think, young lady, because
this body of mine is getting the worse for use, that I hold it altogether
worthless, and that it is to be dragged from yonder lake like so much foul
linen, and no questions are to be asked touching the manner in which the
service has been done. I claim to portion thy husband, that he may at
least make an appearance that becomes the son-in-law of Melchior de
Willading. Am I of no value, that ye treat me so unceremoniously as to say
I shall not pay for my own preservation?

"Have it thine own way, good Gaetano--have it as thou wilt, so thou dost
but leave us the youth--"

"Father--"

"I will have no maidenly affectation, Adelheid I expect thee to receive
the husband we offer with as good a grace as if he wore a crown. It has
been agreed upon between us that Sigismund Steinbach is to be my son; and
from time immemorial, the daughters of our house have submitted, in these
affairs, to what has been advised by the wisdom of their seniors, as
became their sex and inexperience."

The three old men had entered the hall full of good-humor, and it would
have been sufficiently a