be so!" replied the wife.

"She has, indeed, now considerable property; but after the noise
occasioned by her unlucky affair with that adventurer, do you imagine
that she is likely soon to meet with so advantageous a match as Mr.
Rascal? Do you know the extent of Mr. Rascal's influence and wealth?
Why, he has purchased with ready money, in this country, six millions
of landed property, free from all emcumbrances. I have had all the
documents in my hands. It was he who outbid me everywhere when I was
about to make a desirable purchase; and, besides, he has bills on Mr.
Thomas John's house to the amount of three millions and a half."

"He must have been a prodigious thief!"

"How foolishly you talk! he wisely saved where others squandered their
property."

"A mere livery-servant!"

"Nonsense! he has at all events an unexceptionable shadow."

"True, but----"

While this conversation was passing, the grey-coated man looked at me
with a satirical smile.

The door opened, and Minna entered, leaning on the arm of her female
attendant, silent tears flowing down her fair but pallid face. She
seated herself in the chair which had been placed for her under the
lime-trees, and her father took a stool by her side. He gently raised
her hand; and as her tears flowed afresh, he addressed her in the most
affectionate manner.

"My own dear, good child--my Minna--will act reasonably, and not
afflict her poor old father, who only wishes to make her happy. My
dearest child, this blow has shaken you--dreadfully, I know it; but you
have been saved, as by a miracle, from a miserable fate, my Minna. You
loved the unworthy villain most tenderly, before his treachery was
discovered: I feel all this, Minna; and far be it from me to reproach
you for it--in fact, I myself loved him so long as I considered him to
be a person of rank: you now see yourself how differently it has turned
out. Every dog has a shadow; and the idea of my child having been on
the eve of uniting herself to a man who----but I am sure you will think
no more of him. A suitor has just appeared for you in the person of a
man who does not fear the sun--an honourable man--no prince indeed, but
a man worth ten millions of golden ducats sterling--a sum nearly ten
times larger than your fortune consists of--a man, too, who will make
my dear child happy--nay, do not oppose me--be my own good, dutiful
child--allow your loving father to provide for you, and to dry up these
tea