visit, he called one evening at Beckley, to give a cursory account of what he had made out in connection with the examination of the papers. He found the father and daughter sitting in one of the downstairs rooms opening on to the terrace, and they received him as an old friend and a welcome guest. Celine was sitting at the tea-table, whilst the Javanese maid, standing behind her chair, carried backwards and forwards the kettle of boiling water, and in this, the first feminine occupation in which Otto had seen Celine engaged, she seemed to him, if possible, prettier than the first time he met her. After the object of Otto's visit, the inheritance, had been disposed of, Mr. Arnold again talked much about Java and his favourite undertaking, and Celine also joined with animation in the conversation. Otto was surprised at the knowledge of affairs with which she spoke, and at the same time with such simplicity as if she were entirely unaware that such matters seldom came within the range of thought of a young lady of her age. She did not laugh so much as at Otto's first visit; on the contrary, there was a shade of melancholy on her countenance which lent to it another, if not a greater charm. musical ear and good taste; and although he had never had the time to become himself a performer, he was too passionate a lover of good music not to seek it wherever it was to be found. His musical requirements found little to satisfy them at home. Mina did not play; she always spoke of an illness in which she had lost her voice, a voice the charms of which were left to the imagination. Probably then, when Celine sat down without hesitation to the piano, Otto expected to hear one of the parlour pieces which at that time were the order of the day, and which he too often heard played when music was proposed. Whilst he gazed in the twilight at the uncertain outline of Celine's figure, he watched her preparing to play with indifference; but this indifference gave way at the very first chords to the greatest interest, and before Celine had played for a quarter of an hour he listened with bated breath. Such playing Otto had never heard; he had heard others play with as much skill but her playing was something extraordinary, so striking that his feelings were moved to the very depths of his soul. It was evidently an improvisation; first a simple melody which passed slowly from an andante to a quicker movement, then it burst out into a wild passionate strain and at last dissolved itself into a soft melancholy harmony, and unexpect"I am going to play to my father, Mr. | edly her playing became a gentle accomWelters; would you like to stay and listen | paniment as she sang with a deep contralto to some music?" It was only as twilight came on that Otto recollected that he ought to depart, unless he wished to be at Mary's house later than usual; but just then Celine said: Was it more of courtesy than pleasure or curiosity which made him sit down again? Otto Welters was a great lover of music, and Dilburg afforded ample encouragement to that fine art. In the first place it had its section of the Tonkunst Society, where all the young Dilburgers, whether they had voices or no, prepared themselves by weekly practisings for the great performance which took place! every alternate year. Every winter brought its ladies' concert once a fortnight, when now and then a musical star passing through Holland was as well received here as in the larger towns of our country. Then, in summer, the "open air" concerts might truly be called the favourite diversion of Dilburgers, and on a Sunday evening, assembled in the somewhat confined space of the public garden, they listened to the band of the regiment that played for the amusement of the élite of the town. Otto was a zealous member of all these musical institutions; he was gifted with a voice: Aus fernen Ufern hingebannt, Von dir verbannt, mein Vaterland! Celine had passed more than half an bour at the piano and when she finished playing, it had become quite dark, but before Otto came to his senses or had time to say a word to her, she got up from the piano, went out at the open door into the terrace and vanished in the darkness. "Your daughter is a great musician," said Otto at last to Mr. Arnold. "Yes, Celine plays well and has a good voice; I have always taken much trouble to develop this talent in her, and in the last two years of my stay in the East I had the opportunity of providing good instruction for her. She sang almost before she could speak. Music is her nature; it is her only inheritance from her mother." "Has your wife been dead long, Mr. Arnold?" "She did not live to see the first anniversary of Celine's birth. It were much to be desired for my daughter that she had not been brought up without a mother, but I had too great a love for her mother to supply her place. She was a simple girl from the interior, the daughter of a native magnate, darker in tint but still more beautiful than Celine, equally clever but less developed, but she was only in her sixteenth year when I buried her, and with her the best sentiments of my heart and the happiness of my life." "I fear that I have involuntarily touched on a painful theme, Mr. Arnold, but forgive me." "On the contrary, I call to mind the departed willingly. Celine and I often talk to each other of the mother whom she never knew, but whose image I have caused to live in her thoughts. Seventeen years is long enough to heal a wound, and in my daughter I have found a companion for whom I am thankful to God every day." After these last words of Mr. Arnold a long silence ensued. Otto hoped every moment that Celine would come in again, and he would not go till he had thanked her for her playing and singing, and all the more because he regarded her invitation to him to stay and listen as a compensation for her declining to sing at her first visit. But still no Celine came, and in order to start a new subject of conversation Otto broke the silence by the question: "Do you know, Mr. Arnold, that you have taken away from us Dilburgers a privilege which from long usage was regarded as a right?” Surely I know that, my worthy sir," answered Mr. Arnold, with his sarcastic smile, "and if I had not known it, people have taken good care to make me know it. But you must not take it amiss if I say as an Englishman says, 'My house is my castle,' and that I hold myself entitled to maintain absolute freedom for myself in my own castle. Celine is in the habit of wandering out of doors at all times of the day. Neither my health nor my time permit me to accompany her. I am almost certain, for example, that at this moment she is walking about somewhere in the wood. I have remarked by her playing that she is in a melancholy mood, and then solitude is the best cure for her. How then could I agree that Beckley should be open to the public?" "At this moment in this darkness, and in the wood!" exclaimed Otto in surprise. 66 'Why not, Mr. Welters? Does it ap pear to you unfit? Celine has too little 1 knowledge of the world to be aware that timidity and shyness are expected from a young lady, and she is too natural to feign a feeling which she does not possess. There is no danger, and if there were, Celine would know how to defend herself; of that I am quite sure.” There was a certain pride in the way Mr. Arnold spoke of Celine. Otto had remarked this already, and he could forgive the father who felt pride in such a beautiful daughter. But now Otto took his leave, since he could not expect her to come back. As he was going away and had reached the end of the terrace, Celine with her faithful Cæsar emerged from the shade of a dark path and stood before him. "I was just thinking of you, Mr. Welters," she said, coming towards him: "guess what I was thinking of." That you had given me no opportunity of thanking you for the pleasure I have had in your singing and playing," said Otto heartily. Celine laughed; it was too dark to distinguish her countenance; but he saw her white teeth shine and her eyes glisten in the darkness. "No, I certainly did not think of that, Mr. Welters. I could not help its not being more cheerful. All day I have gone about with stupid sorrowful thoughts; but they have been driven away by my playing, and now it is all right again." She interrupted herself - "Now I must just tell you what I was thinking of, only you must not laugh at me." "Surely not, Miss Celine." "I want to know what your Christian name is which begins with an O. I can only think of two, Oscar and Oswald." 66 Have you never heard of Otto?" Otto; well, that is a pretty name, Mr. Welters. I think I shall call you Otto in future. May I?" 66 66 By all means," said Otto. Yes, but you must call me Celine, or I shall not dare to call you Otto." "Good evening, Celine," said Otto. "Good evening, Otto." This last was accompanied with a clear laugh, and the next moment she had vanished into the wood by a side path. During the whole way home Otto could not help thinking of Celine; there was something unaccountably charming in her THE day of the ball at last dawned - I say at last, to express Elizabeth's thoughts; for in her young mind the fête to which she looked forward with so much impatience was the limit of her estimate of time, and the whole of the preceding week seemed to her interminable. She literally danced round her ball dress when it was completed, and during the two days which intervened before it could be put on she could never pass the bedroom door without turning in, putting her head into the wardrobe, and feasting her eyes on the garment as it lay there in all its whiteness and grace. She told Emmy in confidence, that she thought it quite a pity that no aunt of her's had just died, for Emmy, being still in mourning, was to appear entirely in white, whilst Elizabeth had to submit to rose-coloured ribbons and a pale red rose in her dark hair, which Mrs. Welters had chosen. As to that hair of Elizabeth's, a very important matter had a short time since occurred in the family. Only two months ago her long thick plaits had been one of her greatest attractions, but when Emmy appeared at Dilburg with her short crop of curly hair, which she did not know how else to manage, Elizabeth thought that no VOL. XXVI. 1250 LIVING AGE. prettier coiffure could be devised in the whole world of fashion, and without asking any one's advice, she one evening applied the scissors to her beautiful plaits, so that on the following morning she appeared at breakfast like a shorn sheep. Like a shorn sheep, I say, because neither art nor patience could force the slightest resemblance to a curl into her luxuriant but straight hair. At this discovery the young lady was somewhat discomposed, looking at the hair she had cut off, whilst she listened to the not altogether undeserved lecture of her mother. But hardly half an hour later, with her imperturbable good humour, she sat down to laugh at her own folly. 66 Suppose I try and fasten it on with glue, Emmy; suppose I were to offer my hair to Mina as a birth-day present?" "But she already has some in a little box, and it grows on her head on Sundays and fête days." With all her jokes, however, Elizabeth felt great annoyance at her short hair, and the evening before the ball a long conference took place between her and a hair-dresser, the hair-dresser of Dilburg, who, with the help of a mysterious instrument and hot coals, contrived to form stiff curls in Elizabeth's hair, at least for the one evening of the ball. It was her head with at least forty curl papers hanging to it, which just peeped into Emmy's room, her eyes beaming with delight when the great operation of dressing had begun. "It will be all right after all, Emmy." Such were the important words which Elizabeth had felt it necessary to utter, and for which she had left her own room. Before Emmy could answer her she had whisked away. Emmy laughed at Elizabeth's childish excitement, as indeed every member of the family had done during the week; but in Emmy's heart there was a joyful emotion in expectation of the fête of the evening. It was her first ball also; and any one who has not forgotten what that word means, anyone who has experienced what it expresses more especially when that word is in connection with meeting someone who is preferred to the whole world can comprehend why Emmy's eyes sparkled, why her heart beat so gaily, whilst she was dressing for her first ball. For it was true, what the Dilburgers began to whisper to each other, what Mina divined, when she so frequently of late chose as the subject of her conversation the unhappy life of a naval officer's wife. It was true, although it lived as yet un uttered in both hearts, unacknowledged | Bruno were already sitting quite prepared by Emmy even to herself; it was never- for the arrival of the company. The mother theless true that Bruno and Emmy loved and son were together in the receptioneach other. It had come to pass as it might have been foreseen it would do - as it must do. The feeling implanted in childhood, had now taken new root in their young warm, and more impressionable hearts, and had grown with daily increasing strength into that ever wonderful tree which blooms but once in every human life; once dazzles the eye with its splendour, and blooming or withered makes its ennobling influence felt through life till its last day. "When I look at you and Elizabeth, I think of a white and a red rose, Emmy," said Otto, looking with satisfaction at the sisters in their ball-dresses, when they were all assembled in their sitting-room dressed for the ball. The two roses blushed with pleasure; but before Otto had caught sight of the cloud on Mina's face and could make good his mistake, William, with his usual desire to plague Mina, made the matter much worse by saying: "Two roses and one sun-flower." Mina had not had time to return a sharp answer, when Otto added, passing over William's remark as if he had not spoken, "And Mina also looks very nice." Whether Otto really thought so, we will not inquire too closely. room. The former had assured herself by a last look round that all was in order in the different rooms; and now, with her own quiet dignity, she sat on the sofa under the great mirror, whilst Bruno en grande tenue paced up and down before her. All at once, Bruno stopped and gazed attentively at his mother. "I wish, mamma, I could learn from you sometime or other how it is you manage to keep so young and handsome." "Do you know what the best way is, my dear boy? A happy life, such as your father has provided for me, and the possession of a son whom his old mother, with her prejudiced eyes, looks upon as extra perfect.' She laughed, and Bruno would have said something in answer, when the master of the house appeared at the door. Bruno was right: his mother was an extremely handsome wonian, and at the first glance you would have said she was the daughter of her husband, who now entered; yet there were but a few years' difference in age between them. The circumstance that although but fifty years old, his hair was already snow-white, contributed to this; for, if one looked at him closely, one saw plainly that his features were far from suiting his white hair. Her dress of yellow gauze with purple stripes, and the wreath of red flowers in This is our first acquaintance with Mr. her hair, alas, could not make poor Mina Eversberg, and I will detain you a moprettier than she was; they did not make ment to describe his exterior, for it can her arms and neck whiter or rounder, they hardly be called an every-day exterior. I could not efface the fretful expression do not believe that anyone who had once which disfigured her countenance. seen him could ever forget his counteFor an instant, however, her countenance; there was something so peculiar in nance cleared up, when a beautiful bouquet the pallid tint of his complexion, so strange was brought in. She went forward to receive it -a refreshing thought flashed through her mind of Captain Uno's gallantry; but had an asp been concealed under the flowers, she could not have pushed it away from her with greater disgust than she did the next moment. The quasi asp, however, was nothing but an innocent card with the address of Emmy Welters upon it. This made a slight bustle; Elizabeth was as much excited by the arrival of the bouquet as if it had been for herself, and she rushed upstairs for a cast-off bouquetholder of Mina's which she possessed. Whilst these and other little incidents were taking place in the houses of their expected guests, Mrs. Eversberg and in the fixed look in his eyes, in the cold sound and calm tone of his voice whilst he slowly pronounced each word, as if he had first carefully thought it over before it came out of his lips. But with the external calmness which distinguished him, there was, in contradiction to it, a certain nervousness with which he clasped his hands and folded them when he addressed anyone -a nervousness which at the smallest rustle made him start up and look suddenly over his shoulder, as if he thought somebody was standing behind him. Taken as a whole, his exterior was not agreeable; but in Dilburg people had known Mr. Eversberg so many years, that they did not pay much attention to it, and they overlooked that exterior in his emi This veneration and love were felt for him even in a still greater measure by his wife and son. A happier and more united family than the Eversbergs one might have sought for in vain in Dilburg. nent qualities of justice and generosity, the radiance of the gaslight, and where which they honoured and loved. the card-tables were awaiting the nondancing guests. Behind the drawn curtains all the windows were set open to let in the cool air of the autumn evening, and opening out of the saloon there was a boudoir from whence those who wished It was remarkable how the set counte- for more fresh air could step out for a few nance of Mr. Eversberg always altered in minutes on to a balcony which was conexpression whenever he was with his fam-cealed behind the curtain. ily. And now as he entered the well- But what added more than anything to lighted salon, a friendly expression came over his face, and Bruno thus greeted him : We were so afraid you would not come in time, father." Bruno and I had quite settled that you should just cast your eye over everything," were the words with which Mrs. Eversberg greeted her husband. It has been in too good hands to make me feel the slightest doubt that all is in order, my dear Johanna," answered Mr. Eversberg, while he prepared to sit down by his wife. “No, no, father, you must not think of resting; you must first look once all round - must he not, mamma, if it is only to see the chandelier in the great drawing-room, and the collection of shrubs in the alcove, where I have hidden the musicians?" Mr. Eversberg unwillingly allowed himself to be led round by his wife and son. He allowed them to show him all the arrangements for the ball, which were as new to him as they would be to the guests, for his time was too much taken up at the foundry for him to trouble himself about such domestic matters. Besides a great room on the opposite side of the house where the table was laid for supper, there were on this side three rooms, leading into each other, prepared for the ball. The new house, which the family already occupied, was all newly furnished in modern style, and was now lighted up for the first time with gas chandeliers; all ornament and taste, richness without being overloaded, elegance which did not exclude comfort; so that Bruno, with his preference for what was old, could not help looking at everything with pleasure. The reception-room, especially, with its massive furniture, its light yellow silk chairs and heavy yellow silk curtains and portières, had a splendid effect. From the smaller room one went through a folding door into the dining-room, which was now arranged as a ball-room with a waxed floor, and this again opened into what was called the green drawing-room, where golden stars on green velvet glittered in the splendour of the effect, was the profusion of flowers which concealed the corners of the room and rendered the musicians invisible. The master of the house could hardly have failed to observe all these things with pleasure and a certain pride - a pride more excusable in him, than in those who are born and who have grown up in an atmosphere of wealth. But whatever he might have felt, his sensations could not be gathered from the expression of his countenance. He went silently up and down the rooms, and when he came back to his wife and son he spoke an affectionate word and praised this or that arrangement. But just before the arrival of the guests, he stopped suddenly in the first drawingroom and drew aside one of the green damask curtains which shut out the faintly glimmering daylight from the window where he stood, and gazed with fixed look at what was outside. His gaze was in the direction of the foundry, the lights of which shone out towards him in the twilight gloom. Slowly, as with a mechanical motion in which his thoughts had no part, he let the curtain drop out of his hands and turned round. Before him lay the splendid rooms in a sea of light. He saw his wife and son standing together in the farthest room. Mrs. Eversberg, with her hand on Bruno's shoulder, was speaking to him with the peculiar smile which gave such a charm to her countenance. From where he stood he could hear Bruno's clear laugh resounding through the rooms. Motionless he gazed at the group just as he had gazed out of the window; but all at once his rigid face became contracted and assumed an expression of wild despair, such as one would have thought impossible in a face generally so calm. A shiver passed through his limbs, and whilst he covered his face with his hands a deep sigh arose from his breast with the words "O God! O God!" Hardly two minutes later he stood by his wife prepared to receive the first guests whose approach was announced by |