of
a wealthy, middle-class family, who had the figure and bearing of a
queen, shortly before her marriage, not to forget an ermine cloak in her
trousseau.

"I know it would suit me capitally," she replied in all seriousness,
"and I should certainly have worn one, if I had married Baron R----,
which I was nearly doing, as you know, but it is not suitable for the
wife of a government official."

When a girl of the middle classes wanders from the paths of virtue, her
fall may, as a rule, be rightly ascribed to her hankering after the
nobility.

In a small German town there lived, some years ago, a tailor, whom we
will call Loewenfuss, a man who, like all knights of the shears, was
equally full of aspirations after culture and liberty. After working for
one master for some time as a poor journeyman, he married his daughter,
and after his father-in-law's death, he succeeded to his business, and
as he was industrious, lucky and managed it well, he soon grew very well
off, and was in a position to give his daughters an education, for which
many a nobleman's daughters might have envied them; for they learned,
not only French and music, but had also acquired many more solid
branches of knowledge, and as they were both pretty and charming girls,
they soon became very much thought of and sought after.

Fanny, the eldest, especially, was her father's pride and the favorite
of society; she was of middle height, slim, with a thoroughly maidenly
figure, and with almost an Italian face, in which two large, dark eyes
seemed to ask for love and submission at the same time; and yet the girl
with the plentiful, black hair was not in the least intended to command,
for she was one of those romantic women who will give themselves, or
even throw themselves, away, but who can never be subjugated. A young
physician fell in love with her, and wished to marry her; Fanny returned
his love, and her parents gladly accepted him as a son-in-law, but she
made it a condition that he should visit her freely and frequently for
two years, before she would consent to become his wife, and she declared
that she would not go to the altar with him, until she was convinced
that not only their hearts, but also that their characters harmonized.
He agreed to her wish, and became a regular visitor at the house of the
educated tailor; they were happy hours for the lovers; they played, sang
and read together, and he told the girl some things from his medical
expe