e or a
foreigner, no one could divine. The wisest were at fault. This only was
certain, that the unknown lived in a most quiet and retired manner; he
was seen on none of the promenades, nor in any public place; he was
young, was pronounced to be handsome, and his newly married bride, who
shared his solitude with him, was described as being miraculously
beautiful.

It was about Christmas time when this young couple were sitting together
over the stove in their little apartment. "Of a truth," said the young
man, "how all this is to end is a riddle. All our resources seem now
exhausted."

"Alas! yes, Henry," answered the beautiful Clara, to whom this was
addressed; "but whilst you, dearest, are still cheerful, I cannot feel
myself unfortunate."

"Fortunate and unfortunate," replied Henry, "shall be with us but empty
words. The day when you quitted your father's house, and for my sake
abandoned all other considerations, decided our fortune for all our
lifetime to come. To live and to love, this is our watchword; in what
manner exactly we live shall be indifferent."

"Indeed we are deprived of almost every thing," said the young wife,
"except each other. But I knew you were not rich, and you knew when I
left my father's house I could bring nothing with me; so love and
poverty came to us hand in hand. And now this little chamber, which we
never quit, and the talking together, and the looking into the eyes we
love--this is all our life."

"Right! right!" said Henry, and springing up from his seat, he embraced
his charming companion with renewed fondness. "Here are we like Adam and
Eve in their paradise; and I think," he added, looking round the
apartment as he spoke, "no angel will come down from heaven for the
express purpose of driving us out of it."

"If it were not," said Clara, a little dejected, "that the wood begins
to fail--and this winter is certainly the severest I ever knew"----

"Certainly," said Henry; "some fuel must somewhere be found. It is
inconceivable that we should be allowed to freeze from without, with all
this warm love within us. Quite impossible! I cannot help laughing
amidst it all, with a sense of ridiculous embarrassment, at the idea
that so simple a thing as a little coin cannot be procured."

Clara smiled. "If only," said she, "we had some superfluous furniture,
any brass pans or copper kettles."

"Ah! if only we were millionaires!" interrupted Henry gaily; "then we
could get wood in a