girls;
but mother has her own thoughts and opinions: she has good eyes--that
she has! Now, there came many, and among others Eva; but, good Lord! she
was very poorly clad, and she looked feeble and weak, and what service
could one get out of her! But she had a good countenance, and the poor
girl wept and besought mother to take her, for she was not comfortable
at home, and would not remain at Copenhagen. Now, mother knows how
to make use of her words: it is unfortunate that she is not at home
to-night; how pleased she would have been to see the Herr Baron! Yes,
what I would say is, she so twisted her words about, that Eva confessed
to her why she wished to leave home. You see the girl is petty; and the
young gallant gentlemen of Copenhagen had remarked her smooth face,--and
not alone the young, but the old ones also! So an old gentleman--I could
easily name him, but that has nothing to do with the affair--a very
distinguished man in the city, who has, besides, a wife and children,
had said all sorts of things to her parents; and, as eight hundred
dollars is a deal of money to poor people, one can excuse them: but
Eva wept, and said she would rather spring into the castle-ditch. They
represented all sorts of things to the poor girl; she heard of the
service out here with us. She wept, kissed my old woman's hand, and thus
came to us; and since then we have had a deal of service from Eva, and
joy also!"

Some minutes after Eva stepped in, Otto's eye rested with a melancholy
expression upon the beautiful form: never had he before so gazed upon a
woman. Her countenance was extraordinarily fine, her nose and forehead
nobly formed, the eyebrows dark, and in the dark-blue eyes lay something
pensive, yet happy: one might employ the Homeric expression, "smiling
through tears," to describe this look. She announced that the carriage
was ready.

A keen observer would soon have remarked what a change the host's
relation had worked in the two friends. Wilhelm was no longer so free
toward poor Eva. Otto, on the contrary, approached her more,--and at
their leave-taking they offered her a greater present than they would
otherwise have given.

She stood with Otto at the door, and assisted him on with his travelling
cloak.

"Preserve your heart pure!" said he, gravely; "that is more than
beauty!"

The young girl blushed, and gazed at him with astonishment; in such a
manner had no one of his age ever before spoken to her.

"The po