the letter to him. 'It is signed with the name
only of Georgina. Who is this Georgina?'

'I am not indeed so happy,' answered the secretary, with a satyr-like
smile, 'as to know the christian names of all the females with whom
count Arwed might possibly form tender connections. Nevertheless, I
have provided myself, partly from curiosity and partly that I might be
enabled to answer inquiries, with a genealogical list of those ladies
now resident at Stockholm, from which some pertinent information may
perhaps be gained. Fortunately I have the list now with me, if your
excellency will condescend to make present use of it,--however, I
cannot guarantee that you will find there the Georgina in question, as
the taste of my lord, your son, like that of other young cavaliers, may
possibly have led him into a lower circle, of which hitherto I have
been unable to find any tolerably correct catalogue.'

'Produce it!' cried the senator, with ill-humor;--and the secretary
drew forth his geneological list.

'H-m, h-m,' hummed he, perusing it. 'I cannot find any Georgina, and
yet the name must be very common at Stockholm. '_Eureka_!' he suddenly
exclaimed; 'here stands a Georgina! but whether it be the right one
must be determined by further evidence.'

'Come, be expeditious!' impatiently cried old Gyllenstierna.

'Georgina Henrike Dorothea Baroness von Goertz,' read Brodin, 'daughter
of George Heinrich Freiherrn von Goertz, privy counsellor and lord
marshal of the duke of Holstein Gottorp Durchlaucht, and temporary
prime minister and director of the finance commission of his royal
Swedish majesty.'

'He is out of his senses!' loudly exclaimed Gyllenstierna, interrupting
his secretary in his tedious narration. 'The maiden is yet but a mere
child!'

'According to my notes, past fourteen,' replied the secretary; 'but she
looks as if she were eighteen. She has been confirmed this year at the
time of Easter; and has thereby acquired, as it were, a privilege in
regard to such love affairs; besides, she is the only Georgina among
the ladies of this capital.'

'Indeed!' cried the senator, 'the youth flies high--that cannot be
denied, and is most gratifying to me. But a Goertz! Never!'

Startled by the vehemence of this _never_, the secretary shrunk back
for a moment--but, again approaching his master, 'might I presume,'
said he, submissively, in favor of the count Arwed, 'to state that a
connection with the family of the premier ca