ed in creating a pure and lovely home, and had held aloof from
the petty jealousies and small doings of the little town in which they
were residing. Although they saw but little company, they exchanged
visits with some of the so-called gentry. They had paid several visits
to our village, and a friendly intimacy with my wife had been the
result. She did not allow this, however, to induce her to visit the
town more frequently than had been her wont. She carefully avoided
excursions of any kind, from a fear that they might interrupt the quiet
tenor of her life or render society a necessity.

Rontheim's wife and daughters had been used to the life of a court, and
even now acted as if with the morrow they might be recalled to court.
When they accompanied the director, on his frequent official journeys,
they would discover every spot in which there were natural beauties.
Scenes that we had become indifferent to, through habit, or in which we
saw nothing but the uses to which they might be put, had in their eyes
quite a different meaning. They would spend whole days in the valleys
where no one resorted but the harvesters, or on the mountains where
they would meet no one but the foresters. They sketched and gathered
flowers and mosses, and their tables and consoles were decorated with
lovely wreaths of dried leaves and wild flowers. They would often
assist the poor children who were gathering wild berries, and show them
how to weave pretty baskets out of pine twigs. They were in frequent
intercourse with our schoolmaster's wife, who was quite a botanist.

The second daughter, who was interested in drawing, asked me about the
new paintings in the Parliament House; and the elder daughter jokingly
declared that it was a pity that one could never find out what had been
played at the theatre until the day after the performance.

I was forcibly impressed by the evident effort with which Herr Von
Rontheim endeavored to suppress any sign of a consciousness of superior
birth. He showed me a recently restored picture of one of his
ancestors, who had been a comrade of Ulrich Von Hutten, and had
distinguished himself during the Reformation. He intimated that
although the noble families had built up the state, he cheerfully
admitted that its preservation had fallen into other hands.

His kind manner did not quite serve to veil a certain air of
condescension.

During the course of our rather desultory conversation, Madame Rontheim
had r