he never would have let
such an ill-mannered monster into his house. But he was right in
saying I did not receive your visits with indifference; your visits,
Count Ericson, can never be indifferent to me, and"----

What more she would have said, it is impossible to discover, for she
was interrupted by the sudden entrance of her cousin, who only heard
her last words, and started back at what he considered so open a
declaration of her attachment.

"Who are you, sir?" asked Ericson in an angry tone, and with such an
assumption of superiority, that Christina's hand tingled to give him a
mark of regard on his other ear.

"A soldier," answered Adolphus, drawing his sword from its sheath and
instead of directing it against his rival, laying it haughtily on the
table. "A soldier who has bled for his country, and would be happy,"
he added, "to die for it."

"Say you so?" said Ericson, "then we are friends." He held out his
hand.

"We are rivals," replied Adolphus, drawing back.

"Christina loves you, then?" enquired the Count.

"She has told me so; and I was foolish enough to believe her. It is
now your turn to trust to the truth of a heartless woman.--She has
told you you are not an object of indifference to her, and I resign my
pretensions in your favour."

"In whose favour?" cried Christina, trembling; while tears sprang to
her eyes.

"The King's!" replied Adolphus, retiring sorrowfully.

Christina sank on a seat, and covered her face with her hands.

"Stay," cried Charles the Twelfth in a voice of thunder; "stay, I
command you."

The young man obeyed; biting his lip to conceal his emotion, till the
blood came.

"I have seen you," said the King, "but not in this house."

"It was shut against me by my uncle when you were expected," said
Adolphus.

"And yet I have seen you somewhere. What is your name?"

"Adolphus Hesse; the son of a brave officer who died fighting for you,
and leaving me his misfortunes and the tears of his widow."

"Who told you I was not Count Ericson?"

"My eyes. I know you well."

"And I recollect you also," said Charles, advancing to the young man
with a manner very different from that which characterized him in his
intercourse with the softer sex. "Where did you get that scar on the
left temple?"

"At Nerva, sire, where we tamed the pride of the Russians."

"True, true!" cried Charles, his nostrils dilated as if he snuffed up
the carnage of the battle. "You need but this as y