t allow it! Why--why--"

She made a move as if to cast her arms around his neck in her appeal.
He stepped back to avoid her and held his hand up warningly.

"Do not touch me," he said, chokingly. "I must be strong--strong
enough, my little one, to tell you. Ah, my little girl, I go out of
your life; but I shall not forget! I shall remember all our songs, and
the old flute--when I play the old flute, Anna, always shall I think
of you."

She would not be held back, but ran to him and put her hand upon his
arm and thus stood, looking up into his face with pleading eyes.

"I will not give you up!" she cried. "You shall not go! Why ... why ..."

Here was the opportunity for which the old man had been waiting; here
was his chance to pay in full for every pang, the haughty woman who
had so egregiously insulted his and him; here the chance to show a
parvenu her place--and yet to do these things without discourtesy.
Drawing himself up proudly, without the scornful look which one of
less fine sensibility might have thrown at her in similar
circumstances, he gave his calm and dignified explanation with the air
of a true prince.

"It is because," said he, "that in my family no father ever has
allowed his daughter to marry any one who is not by birth her equal."

There could be no mistaking the amazement which his words aroused
among his hearers. Anna and the youth who held her hand looked at him
in frank surprise; but it was on the face of Mrs. Vanderlyn that most
emotion showed. It was plain that the grand lady found it hard to
credit what her ears assured her they had heard. Upon the ship she had
remarked that Kreutzer looked as if he might belong to a distinguished
family. Now his attitude and carriage were the attitude and carriage
of a king--a dignified, but kind and gentle king; not arrogant, as her
instincts would have made her in like circumstances, but stately
and--decisive. The aristocracy of centuries expressed itself in his
straight back; his face was that of one born over-lord of thousands;
his steady and unwavering glance was that of a real Personage looking
kindly but not with any fellowship upon a commoner, as it calmly swung
from its intent pause on his daughter's face to hers.

"Of equal birth!" said she, amazed. "Why, what--"

"Madame," said he, with no abatement of his kindly dignity, "I must
explain some things. My life has been a very hard one and my Anna has
been all which made it livable. When her