t my
Aunt Roselaer. The supplies were stopped, and I left college without
having passed my examination as Master in the Law. My father's
interests obtained for me a place in the financial world, but with
the condition I should marry a rich heiress. The misfortune was, the
heiress in question was of an over-ripe age, with a nose too red for
my taste, and I neglected her. My father grew furious, and declared
he would discard me. Moreover, I could not settle down to the regular
routine of a counting-house for several hours a day, and sometimes
extra work in the evening after dinner. I found in the office an
old clerk, a regular old stager, who had sat on the same stool at
the same desk for twenty years without a chance of promotion. This
is my man, I thought, and I left the responsibility in his hands,
whilst I amused myself with my friends at the club. But one fine day,
when I was out picnicing with a party of friends, my worthy clerk
started off with the cash-box. I was of course held responsible,
and my father's guarantee was forfeited.

"I dare say the whole of Francis' remaining fortune was swallowed
up by this affair and a lawsuit arising out of it. What could I do
now? I had a good voice, and I proposed to go to some music academy
abroad, and return as an opera singer. My father would not consent
to this, and told me the best thing I could do was to enlist in the
ranks as a common soldier. I caught at this idea in the hope of
being promoted to the position of an officer at no distant date;
but I had never been habituated to discipline. I was sent to a
small fortress on the frontiers; Rolf was my lieutenant, and he
did not spare me either hard work or picket duty. To cut it short,
I had enlisted for five years, and I did not stay five months. One
fine morning I walked off altogether. I was caught, and I wounded an
under-officer in self-defence; the charge against me was as clear as
the light of day. But I succeeded in breaking out of prison. I own I
was not very strictly guarded, and Francis, as I afterwards learnt,
had done her utmost to facilitate my escape. Again I was free as
the air; but I must live. I tried everything. I gave lessons in
French and in Latin to little German boys, and I taught the little
Fraeuleins music and singing; I was even appointed private singer to an
Austrian princess, who was deaf, and imagined that my voice resembled
Roger's. I wandered about with a travelling opera company, and sang