ity of referring all applicants, in the first instance, to me?"

"Why, I think it would be an excellent plan, if you do not mind the
trouble."

"Trouble! Joy fills me at the thought of taking part in this good work.
Little did I think that our poor corner of the fatherland was to become
a holy place, a blessed refuge for the world-worn, a nook fragrant with
charity----"

"No, not charity," interposed Anna.

"Whose perfume," continued the parson, determined to finish his
sentence, "whose perfume will ascend day and night to the attentive
heavens. But such are the celestial surprises Providence keeps in
reserve and springs upon us when we least expect it."

"Yes," said Anna. "But what shall we put in the advertisement?"

"_Ach ja_, the advertisement. In the contemplation of this beautiful
scheme I forget the advertisement." And again the moisture of ecstasy
suffused his eyes, and again he clasped his hands and gazed at her with
his head on one side, almost as though the young lady herself were the
beautiful scheme.

Anna got up and went to the writing-table to fetch a pencil and a sheet
of paper, anxious to keep him to the point; and the parson watching the
graceful white figure was more than ever struck by her resemblance to
his idea of angels. He did not consider how easy it was to look like a
being from another world, a creature purified of every earthly
grossness, to eyes accustomed to behold the redundant exuberance of his
own excellent wife.

She brought the paper, and sat down again at the table on which the lamp
stood. "How does one write any sort of advertisement in German?" she
said. "I could not write one for a housemaid. And this one must be done
so carefully."

"Very true; for, alas, even ladies are sometimes not all that they
profess to be. Sad that in a Christian country there should be
impostors. Doubly sad that there should be any of the female sex."

"Very sad," said Anna, smiling. "You must tell me which are the
impostors among those that answer."

"_Ach_, it will not be easy," said the parson, whose experience of
ladies was limited, and who began to see that he was taking upon himself
responsibilities that threatened to become grave. Suppose he recommended
an applicant who afterwards departed with the gracious Miss's spoons in
her bag? "_Ach_, it will not be easy," he said, shaking his head.

"Oh, well," said Anna, "we must risk the impostors. There may not be any
at all. How would you b