n!' said Goertz much agitated, extending his hand to Arwed.
'God grant that you may have something to ask of me that my duty will
allow me to perform.'

'You know my love for your Georgina, my father,' said Arwed, pressing
the old man's hand upon his heart. 'I beg your benediction upon our
union.'

'I have anticipated this request,' sighed Goertz. 'It does you honor
under the present circumstances, but I must not say yes to it.'

'Oh retract those hard words!' begged Arwed. 'You yourself just now
called me a good man. By heaven I am so. Your daughter loves me--and
our glorious king, the evening before his death, promised to crown my
wishes.'

'I know it all,' said Goertz, 'but I can give no other answer.'

'You hate the Swede in me,' said Arwed in a tone of the deepest sorrow;
'nor can I blame you for it.'

'Have you no better opinion of the father of your beloved?' asked
Goertz, with mild reproach. 'I love the man in you, and you may learn
of my daughter that I was not opposed to your wishes, when I yet stood
in my former elevated position. But what would the world say of me,
should I willfully make you unhappy by consenting to your marriage with
the daughter of an unfortunate man whom your father hates, and whose
life and honor will soon be destroyed by one sharp stroke. If, when my
fate shall have been sealed, my daughter's passion remain stronger than
her remembrance of it, she is then at liberty to follow the dictates of
her own heart. I neither advise nor forbid the connection, and shall
earnestly pray to God that all may go well with you, and that you may
never have cause to repent the inconsiderate step.'

'Ah, that is a comfortless consent,' said Arwed sorrowfully.
'Georgina's overstrained delicacy induces her to take the same ground
against me, and I have now come to beg your intercession with her,
which is necessary to my success.'

'My daughter feels as a Goertz must feel,' answered the old man, 'It is
noble in you to persist in your request. Concede to us also the
generosity of the refusal.'

'You make not me alone unhappy!' cried Arwed with vehemence. 'I may,
indeed, in time become reconciled to it. But your daughter will also be
made miserable at the same time. Her love is stronger than she, in the
depth of her filial sorrow, at present supposes it. She may, indeed,
give me up, but she can never forget me.'

'The consciousness of having done right will help her to bear much, my
son,' answered