table the beautiful box! Instantly she opened it; inside, all
the things were so nicely packed and arranged that she did not venture
to take them out; she scarcely even ventured to lift them. There were
muslin, cambric, silk, shawls and lace, all rivalling one another in
delicacy, beauty, and costliness--nor were ornaments forgotten. The
intention had been, as she saw well, to furnish her with more than one
complete suit of clothes but it was all so costly, so little like what
she had been accustomed to, that she scarcely dared, even in thought, to
believe it could be really for her.

CHAPTER XVI

The next morning the Captain had disappeared, having left a grateful,
feeling letter addressed to his friends upon his table.

[Illustration: P. GROTJOHANN OTTILIE EXAMINES EDWARD'S PRESENTS]

He and Charlotte had already taken a half leave of each other the
evening before--she felt that the parting was for ever, and she resigned
herself to it; for in the Count's second letter, which the Captain had
at last shown to her, there was a hint of a prospect of an advantageous
marriage, and, although he had paid no attention to it at all, she
accepted it for as good as certain, and gave him up firmly and fully.

Now, therefore, she thought that she had a right to require of others
the same control over themselves which she had exercised herself: it had
not been impossible to her, and it ought not to be impossible to them.
With this feeling she began the conversation with her husband; and she
entered upon it the more openly and easily, from a sense that the
question must now, once for all, be decisively set at rest.

"Our friend has left us," she said; "we are now once more together as we
were--and it depends upon ourselves whether we choose to return
altogether into our old position."

Edward, who heard nothing except what flattered his own passion,
believed that Charlotte, in these words, was alluding to her previous
widowed state, and, in a roundabout way, was making a suggestion for a
separation; so that he answered, with a laugh, "Why not? all we want is
to come to an understanding." But he found himself sorely enough
undeceived, as Charlotte continued, "And we have now a choice of
opportunities for placing Ottilie in another situation. Two openings
have offered themselves for her, either of which will do very well.
Either she can return to the school, as my daughter has left it and is
with her great-aunt; or she c