ark.'

'Ay, sir, you see what it leads to; wild talk to-day, and wilder doings
to-morrow,' said the old man. 'For there is one thing certain: that this
Gondremark has one foot in the Court backstairs, and the other in the
Masons' lodges. He gives himself out, sir, for what nowadays they call a
patriot: a man from East Prussia!'

'Give himself out!' cried Fritz. 'He is! He is to lay by his title as
soon as the Republic is declared; I heard it in a speech.'

'Lay by Baron to take up President?' returned Killian. 'King Log, King
Stork. But you'll live longer than I, and you will see the fruits of
it.'

'Father,' whispered Ottilia, pulling at the speaker's coat, 'surely the
gentleman is ill.'

'I beg your pardon,' cried the farmer, rewaking to hospitable thoughts;
'can I offer you anything?'

'I thank you. I am very weary,' answered Otto. 'I have presumed upon my
strength. If you would show me to a bed, I should be grateful.'

'Ottilia, a candle!' said the old man. 'Indeed, sir, you look paley. A
little cordial water? No? Then follow me, I beseech you, and I will
bring you to the stranger's bed. You are not the first by many who has
slept well below my roof,' continued the old gentleman, mounting the
stairs before his guest; 'for good food, honest wine, a grateful
conscience, and a little pleasant chat before a man retires, are worth
all the possets and apothecary's drugs. See, sir,' and here he opened a
door and ushered Otto into a little white-washed sleeping-room, 'here you
are in port. It is small, but it is airy, and the sheets are clean and
kept in lavender. The window, too, looks out above the river, and
there's no music like a little river's. It plays the same tune (and
that's the favourite) over and over again, and yet does not weary of it
like men fiddlers. It takes the mind out of doors: and though we should
be grateful for good houses, there is, after all, no house like God's
out-of-doors. And lastly, sir, it quiets a man down like saying his
prayers. So here, sir, I take my kind leave of you until to-morrow; and
it is my prayerful wish that you may slumber like a prince.'

And the old man, with the twentieth courteous inclination, left his guest
alone.

CHAPTER III--IN WHICH THE PRINCE COMFORTS AGE AND BEAUTY AND DELIVERS A
LECTURE ON DISCRETION IN LOVE

The Prince was early abroad: in the time of the first chorus of birds, of
the pure and quiet air, of the slanting sunlig