d, violent, and disturbing.
Wilhelmine informed him of her plan, and after many expressions of
disapproval, when she had made it clear to him that it would be entirely
to his advantage if she succeeded in her design, he gave the ugly plan
his brotherly blessing and his sanction as head of the family.

Hereupon Schuetz returned to Vienna to seek a bridegroom. In an
astonishingly short time, he wrote that he had found an admirably adapted
person in the Count Joseph Maria Aloysius Nepomuk von Wuerben, a gentleman
of very old lineage, and ex-owner of a dozen castles in Bohemia, all of
which, however, had gradually been converted into gulden, and the gold
pieces, in their turn, had vanished into the recollection of many lost
card games. This personage, owing to his sad misfortunes, found himself
at the age of sixty inhabiting a garret in Vienna.

Schuetz wrote that he knew Monsieur le Comte well. They met constantly at
the eating-house. He further assured her that Wuerben was a very pleasant
companion. Wilhelmine replied that it was profoundly indifferent to her
whether her future husband was an agreeable companion or not, as she
intended only to see him once--viz., at her own marriage, after which
ceremony he could follow his namesake St. Nepomuk into the waves of the
Moldau, for aught she cared! It angered her that Schuetz wrote concerning
Wuerben, as though he were in truth to be the companion of her life, and
she winced under a new note of familiarity which had crept into the
attorney's tone.

Friedrich Graevenitz, who had taken up his abode in Wilhelmine's house at
Schaffhausen, made matters worse by what he conceived to be witty and
subtle pleasantries. He was never done with his allusions to 'mon cher
futur beau frere a Vienne,' and he playfully called his sister 'la petite
fiancee.'

On a golden evening of late September, Wuerben, accompanied by Schuetz,
arrived at Schaffhausen. Wilhelmine and Madame de Ruth saw the coach
crawling up the steep incline which led to the little castle that Zollern
had given to the favourite. With difficulty Madame de Ruth had induced
Wilhelmine to offer her future husband one day's hospitality. The wedding
was fixed for the morning after Wuerben's arrival, and the bridegroom had
agreed to return to Vienna immediately after the ceremony.

'I have the honour to present to you Monsieur le Comte de Wuerben!' said
Schuetz, as he ushered in the noble Bohemian. Wuerben bowed to the ground,