as led so
still and retired a life, that she may well be set up as a model for
other women. Besides, the splendour of her clothes and furniture
betokens great wealth, as her dignified manners are a sign of her high
birth."

"And yet lodges at the Park?" retorted Schindel; "and allows the young
men free access to her? That is strange! But who is she, and what would
she here? It does not at all please me, when a handsome female wanders
about the world in this way without protection."

"Thus much she has confessed to me," said Rasselwitz; "her abode here
has a mighty object; but what that object is she does not as yet hold
me fit to be entrusted with."

"If the girl should have some evil design towards you?" said Schindel
thoughtfully. "We have many a warning-tale from the olden time of young
libertines having been allured by some beautiful unknown, and, when at
last they fancied themselves at the goal of their wishes, they grasped
in their arms a hellish monster. At all events you will do well to be
cautious with your new acquaintance."

He was interrupted by the slow approach of footsteps. Supported by
Seidlitz, Tausdorf tottered into the room, and with a friendly smile
upon his pale features, stretched out his arms towards Althea, who
instantly hastened to the man of her affections, exclaiming, "Gracious
Heavens! what has happened to you, Tausdorf?"

"A slight accident, not worth talking of. As I was entering the
town-gate my horse shied and would not go forward, and, when I
attempted to force him on, he reared so high that he fell over with
me."

"And you have been wounded by the dreadful fall?"

"Oh, no. I did, indeed, strike my head against the pavement in falling,
but my hat broke the force of the blow."

"Has your horse ever shown such vice before?" asked Schindel.

"No," replied Tausdorf. "You know my old gray: he was the most docile
beast that I ever rode."

"Then this accident strikes me as something singular," rejoined
Schindel, "as if it were an omen intended by Providence to warn you of
some great evil at hand."

"Don't say that with so much earnestness, my good uncle," exclaimed
Tausdorf, laughing, "or you will terrify my Althea unnecessarily; and
if she should fall sick upon it, the mischief which my bay's
restiveness is supposed to prophesy would then have really come to
pass."

"I should like you as well again if you had a little more faith,"
replied Schindel angrily. "Animals have often