, when they found the
father could not be made to bite; and indeed the three baronesses had
not much time to lose; but 'they reckon without the host,' thinks I.

"As for Mamsell Gabrielle, I could not get much out of her. Many years
ago she had been in X, on a visit to a friend, and there she had danced
with our young master. It was plain that he had been so bashful, that
she had no idea of the impression she had made; she talked of him as of
any other young man. This made me cross, I must confess; but to be
sure, it was all quite right, and far better so; and I resolved to have
no hand whatever in the business, and neither by word or hint, to
meddle with it, but to leave it entirely to Providence.

"When the gentlemen came back that night, I had a good long talk with
my young count at last. He was very merry. He described the foolish
dressed-up ways of these three lemon-colored baronesses, who in those
last five years had grown so young and bashful, so girlish and so
giggling; and had pouted so prettily at his father for being so bad a
neighbour, hinting at their hopes that the son might make amends; and
so, with one eye upon the father, and the other upon the son,
altogether the attraction had been rather 'louche.'

"'Ah! Flor,' he said, 'it was just the thing to make me sick of the
so-called proper matches. I half suspect my father to have taken me
there on purpose to warn me from the daughters of the country, and make
me feel the value of my liberty; he knows how I hate the thoughts of
going to Stockholm, where they want to send me with the Legation. I had
so far rather stay at home among my woods, and only be a sportsman, or
a farmer. And you, Flor, you faithful soul, you would never bid me go.
But when I just hinted at my wishes, treating them as a sort of
romantic whim, I saw at once that by staying I should lose the last
remnant of my father's good opinion; and indeed I have no occasion'--he
said, with a faltering in his voice, that made my heart ache
terribly--'I have no occasion to put his affection to too hard a test.
After all, Flor, one has but one father, in this world.'"

"Poor boy, it was the first time he ever shewed how much it grieved him
to be so little loved.

"'My darling Count Ernest,' I said; 'you know how I wish you all your
heart desires; but to live here in this solitude, at your age, one had
needs be wonderfully happy, or desperately wretched.'

"'And which was your case, Flor?' he aske