commission
was not to his taste. He had too great a regard for Felix to help him
to a bride who could not love him just as he was, with all his faults
and weaknesses. He doubted himself whether he should be doing the young
man a favor if he did so. He was keeping house very comfortably out
there in the solitary villa, going into the woods every day with Homo
and a good double-barreled gun; and even though he did not shoot much,
he unquestionably killed time after a much more manly fashion than if
he were here striving to regain the favor and forgiveness of a spoiled
princess. Besides, he was intending to put his affairs in order soon
after Christmas, and then to set sail in the early spring; for he had
taken it into his head that the air in America would agree with him
better than that of his native land.

This announcement threw the uncle into the liveliest state of alarm. He
depicted to his friend in such dark colors the future that threatened
him, if Felix should carry out this resolution, the prospect of the
life-long guardianship of a Fraeulein who would soon be getting
_passee_, who would grow more whimsical and unmanageable from year to
year, and who would make him suffer for the wrong which she herself had
done to her own happiness by her proud obstinacy; he besought him in
such moving terms not to leave him in the lurch, now of all times, that
finally Schnetz took pity upon him and promised to at least seize the
first opportunity to question Felix concerning the real state of his
feelings.

For a moment he felt tempted, now that they were on the subject of
confessions, to give this lively bachelor, who only wanted to get rid
of his ward in order that he might once more enjoy "life" perfectly
unrestrainedly, a hint in respect to certain natural duties toward
another orphaned child. But a dark presentiment, that possibly a more
suitable hour might come for such a disclosure, restrained him. And,
moreover, as Red Zenz appeared to have vanished from the face of the
earth, there would be no use, for the present, in awakening paternal
feelings of which the visible object was perhaps lost for ever.

CHAPTER VIII.

Thus the year drew toward its end, and Christmas stood before the door.

In former years they had always had a Christmas-tree at the Paradise
Club. But this time the friends felt disposed to celebrate a more
domestic festival, in a narrower circle. In the course of