t played out the ace and said, 'There is a bomb for
you!' and it was all over. I believe she felt a little horror of this
endings herself. I am going now into the city in spite of wind and rain
to make a few calls. I have got to do it sooner or later. I shall take
the steward with me; he will bring home a pair of farm-horses that he
bought the other day. Perhaps I may happen to stumble on my unknown
little godmother that I wrote you about the other day; so far luck has
not favored me."

He added greetings and his signature, and half an hour later he was on
his way to the city in faultless visiting costume.

Arrived in the hotel he inquired for a number of addresses, then began
with a sigh to do his duty according to that extraordinary custom which
Mrs. Grundy prescribes as necessary in "good society," that is, to call
upon perfect strangers at mid-day and exchange a few shallow phrases
and then to escape as quickly as possible. Thank Heaven! No one was at
home to-day although it was raining in torrents. From a sort of natural
opposition he left the Baumhagens to the last; he belonged to that
class to whom it is only necessary to praise a thing greatly in order
to create a strong dislike to it.

Just as he was on the point of making this visit, he met Mr. Wolff.
"You are going to the Baumhagens?" he asked, evidently agreeably
surprised. "There--there, that house with the bow-window. I wish you
good luck, Mr. Linden!"

Frank had a sharp answer on his lips but the little man had
disappeared. But a woman's figure stepped back hastily from the
bow-window above him.

"Very sorry," said the old servant-maid. "Mrs. Baumhagen is not at
home." He received the same answer in the lower story although he heard
the sounds of a Chopin waltz.

He heard an explanation of this in the hotel at dinner. A great ball
was to take place that evening, and such a festival naturally required
the most extensive preparations on the part of the feminine portion of
society; on such a day neither matron nor maiden was visible. Nothing
else was spoken of but this ball, and some of the gentlemen kindly
invited him to be present; he would find some pretty girls there.

"I am curious to know if the little Baumhagen will be there," said an
officer of Hussars.

"She may stay away for all I care," responded a very blond Referendary.
"She has a way of condescending to one that I can't endure. She is
perfectly eaten up with pride."

"She has just