the balcony where they sat and the swimmer in the water.

"If you will keep close about it, I will tell you the secret," he
continued, in a low voice. "After all, it only does honor to the poor
girl that she wants to take the sins of others on her own shoulders,
and do penance for them all her life long. Papa Glove-maker, you must
know, appears to have been by no means such a very long-faced character
in his youth, but, on the contrary, to have led a pretty wild life, and
to have been mixed up in scrapes that were not always of a particularly
edifying nature. However, he married young, and soon after this event
there came a mission of Jesuits to the city, or to some place in the
neighborhood--on this subject the records are silent--and the young
sinner, who had already had ample opportunity for repentance in his
marriage relations, allowed his conscience to be shaken to such an
extent by the priests that he suddenly took a fancy to retire almost
entirely from the world, neglected his business so that he almost
reduced himself to beggary, and practically separated himself from his
young wife. He had long lost her love, for which he did not seem to
care; but this was not the worst. Devoted to his vigils and penances,
he is said to have known of and condoned an intimacy which she soon
after formed with a young landscape-painter, who lived for a long time
in the house. The birth of a little girl, who was named Fanny, ended
this relation; but, even then, the friendship shown for the artist did
not at once cease. He stood as the child's godfather; and every year
afterward he continued, although he had removed from Munich, to make a
visit to the house on little Fanny's birthday. It was soon obvious,
however, that Herr Glove-maker's views had changed; that he viewed him
with less and less favor each time that he appeared; and that a crisis
was approaching. And so, on one of these birthdays, when the girl had
already begun to think for herself a little, there must have been a
scene between her three elders, which was overheard by the unfortunate
young creature. A sudden revelation came upon her, that terribly
darkened and shattered her innocent spirit, so that she grew
introspective and melancholy--and perhaps she had some spiritual
adviser who was always giving her new fancies, and painting the terrors
of the hereafter in stronger colors. Nanny, our informant says, knows
nothing of the whole horrible business; and Fanny used to