through life.'

'Your friend, sir,' insinuated Killian, 'would not, perhaps, care to make
the interest reversible? Fritz is a good lad.'

'Fritz is young,' said the Prince dryly; 'he must earn consideration, not
inherit.'

'He has long worked upon the place, sir,' insisted Mr. Gottesheim; 'and
at my great age, for I am seventy-eight come harvest, it would be a
troublesome thought to the proprietor how to fill my shoes. It would be
a care spared to assure yourself of Fritz. And I believe he might be
tempted by a permanency.'

'The young man has unsettled views,' returned Otto.

'Possibly the purchaser--' began Killian.

A little spot of anger burned in Otto's cheek. 'I am the purchaser,' he
said.

'It was what I might have guessed,' replied the farmer, bowing with an
aged, obsequious dignity. 'You have made an old man very happy; and I
may say, indeed, that I have entertained an angel unawares. Sir, the
great people of this world--and by that I mean those who are great in
station--if they had only hearts like yours, how they would make the
fires burn and the poor sing!'

'I would not judge them hardly, sir,' said Otto. 'We all have our
frailties.'

'Truly, sir,' said Mr. Gottesheim, with unction. 'And by what name, sir,
am I to address my generous landlord?'

The double recollection of an English traveller, whom he had received the
week before at court, and of an old English rogue called Transome, whom
he had known in youth, came pertinently to the Prince's help.
'Transome,' he answered, 'is my name. I am an English traveller. It is,
to-day, Tuesday. On Thursday, before noon, the money shall be ready.
Let us meet, if you please, in Mittwalden, at the "Morning Star."'

'I am, in all things lawful, your servant to command,' replied the
farmer. 'An Englishman! You are a great race of travellers. And has
your lordship some experience of land?'

'I have had some interest of the kind before,' returned the Prince; 'not
in Gerolstein, indeed. But fortune, as you say, turns the wheel, and I
desire to be beforehand with her revolutions.'

'Very right, sir, I am sure,' said Mr. Killian.

They had been strolling with deliberation; but they were now drawing near
to the farmhouse, mounting by the trellised pathway to the level of the
meadow. A little before them, the sound of voices had been some while
audible, and now grew louder and more distinct with every step of their
advance. Presently, when th