nclined in his favour, perhaps your
daughter may sooner or later think well of him too, possibly she may
please him. What would there be then to prevent you from bestowing your
property to make them a happy pair, from dandling your grandchildren on
your knees, instilling into them the rudiments of the arts, and hearing
them lisp in this saloon the illustrious names of your favourite
masters?"

"Never!" cried the old man, and stamped the ground. "How! my only child
to such a worthless profligate? To him this collection here, to let him
waste it in riot, and sell it for an old song? No friend can give me
such advice."

"Be calm only," said Erich; "deliberate on the proposal
dispassionately, and endeavour to sound your daughter."

"No, no!" repeated Walther aloud; "it cannot, may not be! If indeed he
could produce but one of those precious incomparable pictures, which
are now lost for ever, there might be some better occasion for talking
on this subject. But as it is, spare me in future all proposals of this
sort.--And that infernal Breughel here! I will hang him aloft there,
out of my sight, with the gallows physiognomy of the old reprobate, and
all his devils."

He looked up, and again Sophia was peeping down from the little window,
observing their conversation. She blushed, and ran away without
shutting the window, and the old gentleman cried, "That was still
wanting! Now has the self-willed baggage overheard all, and very likely
fills her little stubborn head with these notions."

The old friends parted, Walther dissatisfied with himself and all the
world.

* * * * *

At a late hour in the night, Edward was sitting in his lonely chamber,
occupied with a multiplicity of thoughts. Around him lay unpaid bills;
and he was heaping by their side the sums which were to discharge them
the next morning. He had succeeded in borrowing a fund upon fair terms,
on the security of his house; and, poor as he seemed to himself, he was
still satisfied in the feeling imparted to him by his firm resolution
of adopting a different course of life for the future. He saw himself,
in imagination, already active; he formed plans, how he would rise from
a small post to a more important one, and in this prepare himself for
one still more considerable. "Habit," said he, "becomes a second
nature, in good as in evil; and as indolence has hitherto been
necessary to my enjoyment, occupation will in future be