lost in her parents.

"But among the higher ranks the problem is a sorely intricate one. We
have to provide for higher, finer, more delicate relations; especially
for such as arise out of society. We are, therefore, obliged to give our
pupils an outward cultivation. It is indispensable, it is necessary, and
it may be really valuable, if we do not overstep the proper measure in
it. Only it is so easy, while one is proposing to cultivate the
children for a wider circle, to drive them out into the indefinite,
without keeping before our eyes the real requisites of the inner nature.
Here lies the problem which more or less must be either solved or
blundered over by all educators.

"Many things, with which we furnish our scholars at the school, do not
please me; because experience tells me of how little service they are
likely to be in after-life. How much is in a little while stripped off;
how much at once committed to oblivion, as soon as the young lady finds
herself in the position of a housewife or a mother!

"In the meantime, since I have devoted myself to this occupation, I
cannot but entertain a devout hope that one day, with the companionship
of some faithful helpmate, I may succeed in cultivating purely in my
pupils that, and that only, which they will require when they pass out
into the field of independent activity and self-reliance; that I may be
able to say to myself, in this sense is their education completed.
Another education there is indeed which will again speedily recommence,
and work on well nigh through all the years of our life--the education
which circumstances will give us, if we do not give it to ourselves."

How true Ottilie felt were these words! What had not a passion, little
dreamed of before, done to educate her in the past year! What trials did
she not see hovering before her if she looked forward only to the
next--to the very next, which was now so near!

It was not without a purpose that the young man had spoken of a
helpmate--of a wife; for with all his diffidence, he could not refrain
from thus remotely hinting at his own wishes. A number of circumstances
and accidents, indeed, combined to induce him on this visit to approach
a few steps toward his aim.

The Lady Superior of the school was advanced in years. She had been
already for some time looking about among her fellow-laborers, male and
female, for some person whom she could take into partnership with
herself, and at last had made