such another bold bird of prey as he himself still was, for all his
half century. Never had he found a horse too wild, a woman too witty,
or a sword too sharp for him. He could not forgive the boy for being so
modest. Indeed I often thought--God forgive me!--that he had rather
have seen Count Ernest forget his duty to him as his father, if he only
would have forgotten that the countess was his mother. Therefore the
count always went back to talk of the good old times, when the world
was merrier and less particular. Now it was only a world for sneaks and
lubbers. And when he had drunk a glass beyond the common, he would tell
us all sorts of love-adventures he had had when he was young; while the
young count would look straight before him, and hold his peace. I was
horrified to hear him, and said to myself: 'Can a father really find it
in his heart to be the tempter of his son, when he finds his innocence
a reproach to him?'"

"To be sure, I knew that was not the way to tempt my boy at all; he did
not even lose the respect he owed him as a father. Only it grieved him
sadly, never to see the slightest sign that his father loved him; that
I saw by his eyes; but he never spoke about it, not even to me, to whom
he generally told everything. And so I was almost glad when he left us
in a week to go to College, and never once came home for the next five
years; much as he loved his home, and his woods, and everything about
the place, and often as he used to enquire after them in his letters.

"I say, I was almost glad, and was more glad presently.

"The young count may have been away for about three years, when I fell
into a bad illness; and that left me a weakness in my limbs, so that I
could hardly drag myself up and down the stairs. For I kept all the
keys, and nobody but Mamsell Flor ever touched a thing in the cellars,
store-rooms, or plate-chests. When the count came home in the autumn,
and saw me crawling about the house with a stick; 'Flor,' he said, 'you
have been doing too much for your strength; you must have some
assistance; a sort of housekeeper under you, to save you going up and
down the stairs.' So kind he was, you see, sir, in some things; and for
all I could say against it, next day, it appeared in the daily papers,
that a housekeeper was wanted at the castle.

"All sorts of women came, but none to please me. One or two among them
I even suspected of coveting a higher place, (or a lower, as one takes
it) th