to the
highway if people know how to direct their course properly!"

The pronunciation of the man was somewhat foreign, but pure, and free
from the gibberish which the others employed in their speech. The voice
seemed familiar to Otto, his ear weighed each syllable, and his blood
ran quicker through his veins: "It is the German Heinrich, the evil
angel of my life!" he felt, and wrapt himself closer in his mantle, so
that his countenance was concealed.

A half-grown lad came forward and offered himself as a guide.

"But the lad must have two marks!" said the woman.

Otto nodded assent, and glanced once more toward the man in whom he
believed he recognized the German Heinrich; the man had again carelessly
stretched himself among the heath, and did not seem inclined to enter
into farther discourse.

The woman desired the payment in advance, and received it. The boy led
the horses toward one side; at the moment the fire flare up between the
turf-sods, a great dog, with a loose cord about his neck, sprang forward
and ran barking after the carriage, which now travelled on over the
heath in the gloomy night.

CHAPTER XXI

"Poetry does not always express sorrow; the rainbow can also
arch across a cloudless blue firmament."--JEAN PAUL.

We again find ourselves in Copenhagen, where we meet with Otto, and may
every day expect Wilhelm, Miss Sophie, and the excellent mamma; they
would only stay a few weeks. To learn tidings of their arrival, Otto
determined to pay a visit where they were expected; we know the house,
we were present at the Christmas festival: it was here that Otto
received his noble pedigree.

We will now become somewhat better acquainted with the family. The
husband had a good head, as people sat, had an excellent wine-cellar,
and was, as one of the friends maintained, a good l'hombre player. But
the soul of the house, the animating genius, which drew into this circle
all that possessed life and youth, was the wife. Beautiful one could by
no means call her, but, enchanted by her natural loveliness, her
mind, and her unaffectedness, you forgot this in a few moments. A rare
facility in appreciating the comic of every-day life, and a good-humored
originality in its representation, always afforded her rich material for
conversation. It was as if Nature, in a moment of thoughtlessness, had
formed an insipid countenance, but immediately afterward strove to make
good her fault by breathing into it