h astonished me so much that it
took me several days to recover. Fraulein Loulou Ellrich, and you write
so lightly! Don't you know--that Fraulein Ellrich is one of the first
'parties' in Berlin? That the little god of love will make you a
present of two million thalers? You have shot your bird, and I am most
happy that for once fortune should bring it to the hand of a fellow
like yourself. In the hope that as a millionaire you will still be the
same to me, I am your heartily congratulatory

"PAUL."

Wilhelm was painfully surprised. What a mercy that the letter had not
come sooner. It might have influenced his manner so much as to spoil
his relations with Loulou. Now that the Ellrichs were gone, it could
for the moment do no harm.

CHAPTER II.

VANITIES OF VANITIES.

A brilliant company filled the Ellrichs' drawing-rooms. These lofty
rooms, thrown open to the guests, were more like the reception-rooms in
a great castle than those of a bourgeois townhouse in Berlin.

The councilor's drawing-rooms occupied the first floor of the largest
house in the Lannestrasse. The carpeted staircase was decorated with
plants and candelabra, and the guests were shown into a well-lighted
anteroom, and on through folding doors into the large square
drawing-room. The walls were covered with gold-framed mirrors
reflecting the great marble stove, with its Chinese bronze ornaments;
the Venetian glass chandelier, the painting on the ceiling representing
Apollo in his sun chariot, while the rows of pretty gilt chairs in red
silk, the palm trees in the corner, and the wax candles in the brass
sconces on the walls were repeated in endless perspective. On the right
was a little room not intended for dancing, thickly carpeted, with old
Gobelin tapestry on all the walls and doors; inlaid tables, ebony
tables, and silk, satin, and tapestry in every conceivable form. A
glass door, half-covered by a portiere, gave a glimpse into a
well-lighted winter garden, full of fantastic plants in beds, bushes
and pots. On the left of the large drawing-room was the dining-room,
with white varnished walls divided into squares by gold beading, and
decorated by a number of bright pictures of symbolic female figures
representing various kinds of wine. A gigantic porcelain stove filled
one end of the room, and a sideboard the other. Through the dining-room
was a smoking-room furnished with Smyrna carpets, low divans, chairs in
mother-of-pearl, and from