esa was present she hardly
ventured to address the girl at all. Teresa's cold, perpetually watchful
eyes, always had a disquieting effect upon her; now she was freed from
that restraint.

Fanny primly sipped her coffee, looking from time to time at her mother,
who never once ceased praising her beauty and goodness, and would have
compelled her to eat up every bit of breakfast if she could have had her
way.

"Mamma," said the girl, taking her mother's hand (she was no longer
afraid of her), "what was the name of that gentleman who was making
inquiries about me?"

Mrs. Meyer's eyes began to sparkle villainously. Ah ha! the timid
creature was approaching the snare!

If, however, she had regarded her daughter's face a little more
attentively, she would have noticed that in putting the question she did
not even blush, but remained cold and pale.

Looking round very mysteriously to make sure that nobody was within
hearing distance, she drew her daughter's head down towards her, and
whispered in her ear--

"Abellino Karpathy."

"Oh, 'tis he, then!" exclaimed Fanny, with a peculiar, a very peculiar
smile.

"Then you know him?"

"I have seen him once, a long way off."

"Oh, what a handsome, refined, pleasant man he is! Never in my life have
I seen such a figure of a man!"

Fanny began brushing the crumbs off the table-cloth and playing with the
coffee-spoon.

"Yes, mother; sixty thousand florins is a lot of money, isn't it?"

Ah, the hunted creature is already in the snare! Quick, quick!

"Yes, my darling, a lot of money indeed; the legal rate of interest upon
it is three thousand six hundred florins. A poor man would have to put
his nose to the grindstone for a long, long time before he could earn
that."

"Tell me, mamma, was papa's income as much as that?"

"Alas! no, my daughter. It was much for him when it came to nine hundred
florins, and that is only the fourth part of this. Fancy, four times
nine hundred florins!"

"Now say, mamma, has Abellino really said that he would marry me?"

"He said he would give a solemn assurance to that effect any moment you
like."

Fanny appeared to be considering. "Well, if he deceives me, so much the
worse for him, the sixty thousand florins will be ours in any case."

"Ah, what a prudent girl it is! She is not a feather-brain like her
sisters. She will not make a fool of her old mother. She is, indeed, my
own true girl!" thought Mrs. Meyer to herself, and she rub