ones belonged to each other?-to me, whose fondest wish is thus accomplished? and who, indeed, have only waited for this long-expected moment to tell you all that I, too, have made my choice, so that there will soon be three families living together, and loving each other, at L:

"This news, and, yet more, the joyous manner of it, took us all by surprise. We pressed him to tell us more. And-but this is a profound secret. Have I the right to tell thee? Yet why not? I well know thou wilt rather banish it from thy mind than let it pass thy lips. Well, then. Thou knowest that centenary lawsuit about the Rosenberg property near Oels? The present possessor is childless. The heiress is his niece. And this circumstance is sadly in the way of the Rosenberg claim. Proposals have been privately made to terminate the dispute by marriage. The object of Edmond's last visit to Breslauthou thyself, I doubt not, didst not suspect it any more than we-was to see the heiress. He now tells us that the sight of her has confirmed the favorable impression made by all that he had previously heard as to her character and education. And he assures us that his mind is made up. But nothing is settled as yet.

"You know with what caution and deliberation Edmond acts in all things.

"In my secret heart am I glad of this arrangement? Frankly, no. I understand not this sort of marriages. Indeed, this decision of Edmond's would be quite unintelligible to me if my knowledge of his character did not enable me to understand that to him marriage,

under any circumstances, would be the result of a decision dictated by considerations of prudence, after mature deliberation. Well, be it so. I am not made to understand it. But when I see a young girl like this poor Rosenberg heiress, and when I must think, 'There goes she in the grace and gladness of her youth; and some poor girlish fancy no one cares to suspect can bring a softness to her eyes and a flushing to her cheek, and for any little pleasure-the unconscious kindness of a careless word; some peasant's greeting as he holds back the silly branches in the cherry-orchard not to touch her as she passes—the grateful blood will brighten as if to show how easily young souls are pleased, while her heart beats quicker at the sound of a step she knows'-and then, when I must think that all this while she knows not, poor child, that in point of fact she is nothing more nor less than an Old Lawsuit-well, I say that saddens me, Theresa."

EXTRACT FROM THE JOURNAL OF COUNT EDMOND.

'Impossible!

"I can no more. Nature can only concede to the possession of pain the limits of her own strength.

"Lord God in Heaven, look down upon this soul which Thou hast made. See how it fares with Thy

creature.

"What is there in this single solitary sentiment to justify the tormenting tyranny of it, when I confront it with all my proud projects, of which each seemed large enough, and lofty enough, to fill grandly a great life?

"What is it?

"A wish.

"What to me is a wish?

"Miserable mendicant, have I not denied thy claim? Bankrupt bill, drawn with fraudulent pretenses by the need of a moment upon the poverty of an eternity known to be insolvent, I have torn thee! I have canceled my name from the bond. I have done with thee forever.

"Why, then, art thou here again? Why comest thou back to me disguised?

"More fearful art thou in this, thy present form, because less false, than in that other. Lie as thou art, yet hast thou in thee now the terror of a truth.

"For now thou hast forsworn thy plausible pretendings. What art thou now? Less, and yet more. Nothing, every thing. Less than a Wish, yet more insatiable-a Longing. Thou believest not, affirmest not, dost promise not, any more. Thou lookest where

there is nothing to be seen; thou walkest where there is nothing to reach. Spurred by the conviction of the unattainable, thou travelest, empty, into emptiness. Seeking for seeking's sake; motion without a meaning; travail without birth; a race without a goal.

"What have I to do with thee, womanish wooer of unmanly souls? Rank, unwholesome weed of weak self-pity, insinuate not into the pulses of my life thy crawling roots.

"Impalpable impostor, thou art detected and denounced. Only as a wish couldst thou dupe the credulity of a mind diseased. To the eye of the hectic

the face of approaching Death is florid with the hue of Life. To the sickly sight the sunset seems the sunrise, and decay's red signal blushing health. Only to a mawkish sense, thou feeble Longing, canst thou look like Hope. But I am strong. I know thee, and I will not know thee. Away!

"Or rather, in thy real form, thou Protean monster of the many faces, reveal thyself at last. Take palpable substance, that I may kill thee. Come forth! avow thyself! I know the hellish name of thee at length. Appear! Be seen, for what thou art, in thy most loathsome shape, detestable Lust. Blight, even in the body of the brute! Procurer to the tiger and the ape! Shall I cringe to a thing so vile? Shall I stoop to a force so foul?

"Beastly, abortive fiend! Fasten thy mad-dog's bite into my living flesh: not a groan shalt thou wring from the scorn of my soul in her wrath. Unshamed in the consciousness of all that I am, unquelled in the kingdom of myself, undebased in my dignity of man, dare but to stir, and I strangle thee dead!"

CHAPTER XI.

HOW IT STRIKES A BY-STANDER.

LETTER FROM JOACHIM FURCHTEGOTT SCHUMANN (AGENT AND PROPERTY-INTENDANT OF ARTHUR COUNT R- OF L), TO BARONESS THERESA N-——————.

"L, 15th September.

"HONORED MADAM,-As in duty bound, with profound respect, I take in hand my humble pen, in order to acquaint your honor of the sad calamity with which it has pleased God to visit the noble family of my honored lord and esteemed master, the count. Also, honored madam, it is by the express orders of his honor that I make bold to pen these sad lines, for his honor is in hopes that your ladyship's esteemed presence may alleviate the bereaved soul of her honor the Lady Juliet. May it please your honor to pardon your honor's dutiful servant if, in the recital of this sad tale, as in duty bound, I occasion great grief to your ladyship's kind heart.

แ

'Yesterday, 14th hujus; scilicet the day of the Elevation of the Blessed Host, being about the hour of 8 A.M., and the morning cloudy, it pleased the two young lords, my esteemed masters, to go duck-shooting down the river. And it was their lordships' intention to cross same river, videlicet the Weidnitz, from the point of the long bend beyond the old mill, which is at the distance of about three quarters of a mile,