nough; but he said nobody could tell me as much about such matters as
'Melker Barndollar,' of whom he spoke with 'bated breath. He also
invited me to visit him."

"Shall you accept his invitation?"

"I have fully made up my mind to go; but that doesn't make it certain
that I shall."

"Should you go if he possessed not a pretty daughter?"

"Probably not."

The next morning Brent rode over to the Reinfelter farm. The farm-house
interested him at the first view. It was a quaint old stone building,
with four gables and a slated roof, from the projecting windows in which
the mountain-line could be seen stretching away to the southwest and
growing more and more indistinct until their faint outlines were lost on
the far horizon. Ivy concealed more than half the gray stones from
sight, and fragrant pink roses were blooming against the southern wall,
while thick bushes of flowering jessamine grew on both sides of the
front door.

The visitor received a welcome which made him feel as if he had reached
his own home. He had grown so weary of wandering aimlessly around the
world, and had become so disgusted with conventional forms and
ceremonies, that the peaceful home-like and simple, kindly manners of
these unsophisticated people gave him an agreeable sense of rest and
freedom from restraint.

He allowed himself to be prevailed on to stay until late in the
afternoon; and before his visit ended he circumspectly inquired whether
they would receive him as a boarder. The promptness and pleasure with
which both the farmer and his wife agreed to his proposal showed him
that his fear of giving offence had been entirely groundless.

When he returned to the inn, the professor informed him that on the
succeeding day he was going on to the next county.

"I shall stay in this neighborhood some time longer," said Brent.

"So? What is the especial attraction? The young woman over there where
the mountains stand?"

"Perhaps; but my own motives are about the last things I should attempt
to analyze."

"Well, I expect to come back this way in three months, and, if I find
you here and ready to depart, we can return to New York together."

"Like nearly all other imaginable things, what you state is not
impossible."

Helfenstein went on his way the next morning, and Brent began his
sojourn at the farm-house on the same day.

The burdens of Rena Reinfelter's life immediately became very much more
numerous. The Englishman found an un