the pure and beautiful, and is grateful to the other for each
new insight; but, strangely enough, people soon tire of talking about
the purely beautiful. On the other hand, there are those who furnish an
inexhaustible supply of material for conversation which dwells chiefly
upon the unlovely features, whilst the attractive are mingled in and
brought to the surface with great effort; at the close the speaker
feels obliged to add, "But I am no hypocrite when I meet this person in
a friendly way, for while there is much to condemn, there is also a
great deal that is good." Clodwig was a character of the former, and
his wife Bella, born Baroness von Pranken, of the latter sort.

Clodwig was a nobleman in the best sense of the word. He was not one of
your affable people, on the same terms with every one. He had a
gentlemanly reserve and repose. The independent proprietor, the
manufacturer as well as the priest, the day-laborer, the official, and
the city-merchant, each believed that he was particularly esteemed and
beloved; and all considered him an ornament of the landscape, like some
great tree upon the mountain-top, whose shade and whose majestic height
were a joy, and a shelter from every storm.

The counsel and help of Clodwig von Wolfsgarten could be counted upon
confidently in all exigencies. He had been abroad for a long period,
and only since his second marriage, five years since, had he resided at
his country-seat. Bella von Wolfsgarten was much more admired than
beloved. She was beautiful, many said too beautiful for the old
gentleman. She was more talkative than her husband; and when she drove
out in a pony-carriage drawn by a span of dappled greys through the
country and villages, herself holding the reins, while her husband sat
by her side and the footman upon the back seat, everybody bowed and
stared. Many old people, who always find some special reason for any
new fashion, were inclined to see in this fact of Bella's holding the
reins a proof that she had the rule. But this was not so, by any means.
She was humble and entirely submissive to her husband. It was often
displeasing to him that she so excessively praised, even in his
presence, his goodness, his even disposition, and his noble views of
life and the world.

Eric had only a dim recollection of the commotion excited in the
capital by Bella's marriage, for it happened about the time that he
resigned his commission. He had frequently seen Bella, but