initial commit of ebook 35135HEADmain

9 files changed, 13932 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/35135-8.txt b/35135-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..49d999a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35135-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,4607 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Partners, by E. Werner
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Partners
+       A Novel.
+
+Author: E. Werner
+
+Translator: H. G. Godwin
+
+Release Date: January 31, 2011 [EBook #35135]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARTNERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+   1. Page scan source:
+      http://books.google.com/books?id=WO0BAAAAQAAJ&dq
+
+   2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                          _At every Library_.
+
+                               LUCREZIA.
+
+                               _A STORY_.
+
+                          By MRS. COMYNS CARR,
+
+            _Author of_ "_North Italian Folk_," "_A Story of
+                            Autumn_," _&c_.
+
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+                            1 Vol. 10s. 6d.
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+                 REMINGTON & CO., 134, New Bond St., W.
+
+
+                         _Of all Booksellers_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                               PARTNERS.
+
+
+                                A Novel.
+
+
+
+
+                                   BY
+
+                               E. WERNER.
+
+        AUTHOR OF "SUCCESS AND HOW HE WON IT," "UNDER A CHARM,"
+                "RIVEN BONDS," "NO SURRENDER," &c., &c.
+
+
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+                     _TRANSLATED BY H. G. GODWIN_.
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+
+
+                                London:
+                           REMINGTON AND CO.,
+                          New Bond Street, W.
+                               *   *   *
+                                 1882.
+
+                        [_All Rights Reserved_.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                               PARTNERS.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+
+It was afternoon on a sunny spring day. The profound Sabbath rest and
+stillness which found no place in the incessant turmoil of the great
+commercial seaport reigned the more undisturbed around a country house
+which lay beyond the great sea of buildings near the shore, and whose
+park-like grounds stretched down to the water. It was one of those
+imposing, elegantly and luxuriously appointed villas which rich
+townspeople usually inhabit when they wish to live secure from street
+noises and confusion, and yet would be able to reach the town without
+great loss of time. In the drawing-room, whose French windows opened
+upon the garden terrace, were a lady and gentleman engaged in an eager
+and obviously earnest conversation. The cheeks of the young lady glowed
+in hot excitement, and she struggled visibly with hardly repressed
+tears, while the gentleman appeared perfectly indifferent and unmoved.
+He was a man of middle age, but with already completely grey hair, and
+grave, cold features; his whole appearance betokened the business man.
+The calm and cool indifference of his manner was not lost for a moment
+in the most exciting conversation, and even his mode of speaking was
+dry and businesslike, without a trace of any warmer feeling.
+
+"Really, Jessie," said he, "I am weary of this constant repetition of
+the old lamentations. As your guardian and relative I have undertaken
+the care of your future, and I should have thought the future which I
+lay before you acceptable enough. But such a silly, romantic, girlish
+head will never be able to judge what is for its own happiness."
+
+The silly, romantic, girlish head was at least not deficient in grace.
+Without being regularly beautiful, the fair head, the delicate, but
+very expressive features, and the rather languishing blue eyes, had
+something uncommonly attractive.
+
+At this moment, however, the youthful countenance bore the expression
+of passionate excitement, and the same excitement trembled in her voice
+when she replied--
+
+"My happiness! What you call by that name, Uncle Sandow, lies
+immeasurably far from what is happiness to me."
+
+"Will you, perhaps, tell me what misty and fantastic idea you connect
+with the word?" said Sandow, in a sarcastic tone. "Happiness is a
+brilliant position in life, in the midst of wealth, at the side of a
+husband who, under all circumstances, can be a support to you. That is
+offered to you with the hand of a man"--
+
+"Whom I don't even know," interrupted Jessie.
+
+"But whose acquaintance you will make within an hour. Besides, my
+brother is no stranger to you, even if you have not yet actually seen
+him. According to his portrait, his exterior leaves nothing to be
+wished for, and you have declared that no other inclination binds you.
+Why, then, this obstinate struggle against a union for which Gustave is
+already prepared?"
+
+"Just because he was so quickly prepared for it. I cannot--I will not
+confide my future to a man who does not for a moment hesitate to give
+up his chosen calling, his already brilliant career, because the
+prospect of a wealthy match is held out to him."
+
+Sandow shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"There again are the exaggerated ideas with which your German education
+has imbued you, and without which you were quite sentimental enough.
+Chosen calling! Brilliant career! You seem to have a very exalted idea
+of the position of a German journalist. Gustave's pen is admired and
+sought for so long as the whim of the public and the present political
+tendency last. Sooner or later that will come to an end, and then
+good-bye to his brilliant career. Here in America independence, riches,
+and the coveted post of head of a great commercial house, are offered
+to him. He would be worse than a fool to throw that up in order to
+continue to write leading articles."
+
+"That is a matter of taste, and I assure you, Uncle Sandow, it would be
+quite immaterial to me whom you might choose as a partner if you would
+not draw me within the circle of your business calculations."
+
+"I do it in your own interest. You know it was the dearest wish of your
+late father to keep your fortune in the business. He ever hoped that
+his place there would be filled by his son-in-law. It was not granted
+to him to see this himself."
+
+"No," said Jessie, softly, "for he never had the heart to force me as
+you do now."
+
+Sandow made an impatient movement.
+
+"What exaggerated expressions are these! I do not think of forcing you,
+but I require with the greatest decision that you should listen to
+reason, and not cast aside the idea of this union without farther
+consideration, merely because it does not agree with your romantic
+ideas. You are nineteen, and must now think of marriage. Ideal
+marriages, such as you dream of, do not exist. To every one who woos
+you your fortune is the great attraction. The days of disinterested
+love are long past, and when one or another plays such a comedy with
+you it is only more surely to squander your money afterwards. It is
+important that you should make that perfectly clear to yourself, or the
+inevitable disappointments may be too hard for you."
+
+An incredible heartlessness lay in the icy calm with which he reckoned
+all this up in the ears of his ward, and reduced the step on which
+depended all the dreams, illusions, all the future hopes of the young
+girl, to a flavourless calculation, of which the factor was her
+fortune.
+
+Jessie's lip trembled painfully at this merciless exposition, for the
+air of infallibility with which it was pronounced showed her that
+Sandow really expressed his inmost convictions. Had she not already
+learnt what it meant to be a good match, and to thus enchain the
+selfishness and calculations of every man with whom she came in
+contact? Even her guardian saw and respected in her only the heiress, a
+bitter thought for a young creature whose heart longed passionately for
+happiness and love.
+
+"Here you need not fear this," continued Sandow, who looked on her
+silence as a kind of assent. "This marriage offers you both similar
+advantages. With your hand Gustave receives a fortune and a high
+position in the commercial world here; through him you retain an
+interest in your father's business, and have the certainty that your
+wealth will be controlled and increased by your husband. The thing is
+so clear and simple that I cannot really comprehend your obstinate
+resistance, particularly as you have interested yourself formerly about
+Gustave, and you have always read his articles with the greatest
+enthusiasm."
+
+"Because I believed in the writer of them; because I did not imagine it
+possible that all this glowing love of country, all this enthusiasm for
+the great and beautiful, could be only phrases to be cast to the winds
+as soon as it appeared advantageous to do so."
+
+"These knights of the quill are accustomed to fine expressions," said
+Sandow slightingly. "It is a business matter. It would be hard upon
+them if they must match word and deed. Gustave has written as his
+situation and the tendency of the day demanded, and now he acts as
+reason requires. If he did not he would be useless to me as a partner.
+And now let us end the discussion. I do not urge you to decide either
+to-day or to-morrow, but await nevertheless with certainty your assent
+to my wishes."
+
+"Never!" cried Jessie, flaming out. "To belong to a man who sees in me
+merely a paragraph in a business contract; to an egoist who sacrifices
+to his material gain all that is holy and dear to others! Never!
+Never!"
+
+Sandow took little or no notice of this passionate outburst. If Jessie
+had been his daughter he would have simply commanded and forced her to
+follow his wishes, but he knew too well the limits of his power as
+guardian to attempt anything of the kind here. He knew besides that his
+long-accustomed and dreaded authority was of itself a kind of
+compulsion to the girl, and was determined to employ it.
+
+"We will leave the subject now," said he, rising. "I am going to the
+station, and expect in an hour to present my brother to you. You will
+condescend in the first place to learn to know him, and everything else
+will follow in time. Good-bye."
+
+With this he left the room, and the carriage, which had been waiting
+for him, rolled from the door.
+
+Jessie remained alone, and now, when she felt herself no longer under
+the ban of those cold, hard eyes, the long-repressed tears burst forth.
+The girl plainly did not belong to those energetic natures which set
+will against will. In these tears she betrayed all the weakness of a
+character accustomed to be directed and led, and which, in the first
+struggle to which it must arm itself, feels its own impotence.
+
+It was, indeed, the first struggle of her life. Reared in the happiest
+circumstances, sheltered by the love of the tenderest parents, pain had
+first approached her when her mother died, and two years after her
+father followed his wife to the grave. In his will, Sandow, the friend
+and partner of many years, was named guardian of the orphan girl, and
+her pecuniary interests could have been placed in no better hands.
+
+But Jessie had never succeeded in forming a real attachment to her
+uncle, though she had known him from her childhood. He was a near
+relation of her mother's, and like her a native of Germany. More than
+twelve years before he had come almost destitute to America, and had
+sought and found a situation in her father's business. They said
+misfortunes and bitter experiences had driven him from Europe. What
+these really had been Jessie could never learn, for even her parents
+seemed only partially informed on the subject, and Sandow himself never
+alluded to it.
+
+In the beginning he had been placed in a subordinate position in the
+office merely out of consideration for him as a connection, but he soon
+developed such a restless activity, such prudence and energy, that he
+speedily won for himself a place second only to the chief himself, and
+when a threatened business crisis was turned aside only through his
+timely and energetic action, he was promoted to a share in the concern,
+which under his guidance soon made quite a new departure. A succession
+of bold and fortunate speculations raised the, till then, modest firm
+to the position of the first in the town, and the new chief managed to
+employ so successfully the weight which this good-fortune gave him that
+he became almost sole ruler, and at all events possessed the first and
+decisive voice in any question of importance.
+
+In this way Sandow had become in a comparatively short time a wealthy
+man. As he was alone, he resided as before in the house of his
+relations, but in spite of this domestic intercourse of many years'
+duration, and in spite also of the community of interests, he had never
+become really united with them. His cold, harsh manner closed the way
+to any nearer approach; he recognised nothing but business interests
+and incessant labour, and never sought rest or relaxation in the family
+circle; indeed, these were things which for him appeared to have no
+existence.
+
+Jessie's father made no opposition to his partner taking the greater
+portion of the work and anxiety off his own shoulders, being himself
+more inclined to social enjoyment, to an easy family life. Since he met
+Sandow's wishes on this point the relations between the two men had
+always been most harmonious, though they may have arisen in the first
+place more out of mutual necessity than real friendship.
+
+Now the management of the young heiress's possessions lay in Sandow's
+hands alone, and he soon extended his rights so far as to wish to
+control also her future. With the same inconsiderate selfishness which
+all his undertakings displayed, he wove the plan of a marriage between
+his ward and his brother, and was as much surprised as displeased when
+his scheme, which was unconditionally accepted on the one side, found
+decided opposition on the other. However, he paid little attention to
+this opposition, and was firmly convinced that the girl, who till now
+had shown neither strength nor inclination for independent action,
+would also, in this respect, follow his wishes.
+
+The hour destined for the journey to and from the station had nearly
+elapsed when the carriage again drew up at the door, and immediately
+after the two gentlemen appeared in the drawing-room where Jessie still
+sat.
+
+Sandow did not appear in the least agitated at again meeting his
+brother after a separation of so many years. His manner was as unmoved,
+his tone as cool as usual, as he presented Mr. Gustave Sandow to Miss
+Jessie Clifford. The new arrival approached the young lady with a
+polite bow.
+
+"May I also reckon on a friendly reception from you, Miss Clifford? I
+come as a stranger indeed, but I bring you a greeting from the land
+which was your mother's. Let this be my introduction to you."
+
+That sounded not only kindly, but friendly, almost warm. Jessie looked
+up with surprise, but the searching, piercing look which met hers
+chilled her again directly, for it recalled to her the cause of their
+acquaintance. She replied with cool civility--
+
+"I hope you had a pleasant voyage, Mr. Sandow."
+
+"Remarkably so. We had the calmest sea, the most agreeable passage, and
+also during my land journey the weather has been most delightful."
+
+"That is why you have protracted it so long, I suppose," said Sandow,
+joining in the conversation. "You have wandered about the country in
+every direction like a tourist. We expected you a fortnight ago."
+
+"Well, one ought to learn to know the country and the people," rejoined
+Gustave. "Did you wish me to come direct here?"
+
+"Not exactly. I quite understand your staying in the large towns. It is
+always an advantage to be personally acquainted with one's commercial
+correspondents. Unfortunately I have no time for it, but I certainly
+provided you with plenty of letters of introduction. What is it--a
+telegram?"
+
+The last words were addressed to a servant who had entered behind the
+two gentlemen, and who now offered him a telegram which had just
+arrived.
+
+While Gustave and Miss Clifford exchanged the first general remarks,
+the elder brother opened the telegram, glanced over it, and then,
+turning to the other two, said--
+
+"I must leave you for half an hour; a matter of business which demands
+immediate attention."
+
+"To-day! Sunday?" asked Gustave. "Do you, then, never allow yourself a
+moment's rest?"
+
+"Why should I? Something might then be neglected. On Sunday, when the
+offices are closed, I have the most pressing business sent out here.
+You looked up Jenkins and Co. in New York, Gustave? The telegram comes
+from them. I shall speak about it to you later. Meanwhile, I leave you
+in Jessie's company; so good-bye."
+
+He folded the telegram together and went.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+
+The younger brother looked after him with an air of the most profound
+astonishment.
+
+"Well! one does not seem in danger of being spoiled by excessive
+brotherly love," he remarked drily, turning towards Jessie.
+
+"You must know your brother to a certain extent," she answered simply,
+accustomed to see business take precedence of everything.
+
+"Certainly! but in Europe he was a little more considerate. I thought I
+had a claim on, at least, the first hour after my arrival."
+
+"You must be tired after your journey," said Jessie, seeking for some
+excuse for avoiding this equally unexpected and undesired
+_tête-à-tête_. "Your rooms are ready if you would, perhaps"--
+
+"Thanks, no!" interrupted Gustave; "I am not in the least tired, and
+have really every cause to be grateful to Jenkins and Co. for procuring
+me the pleasure of your company."
+
+With that he drew a chair towards him, and sat down opposite to her.
+But neither his serene and careless air, nor his prepossessing
+appearance, succeeded in thawing the cold reserve of the young lady.
+She was not surprised to find him considerably younger than her
+guardian, as she knew he was the child of a second marriage. The elder
+brother was, indeed, already past middle age, while the younger was
+scarcely over thirty. On the whole, his exterior was exactly that
+represented in the picture which hung in his brother's study. A
+powerful, manly figure, agreeable, intelligent features, dark hair and
+beard, and lively, sparkling dark eyes, which were distinctly fine and
+expressive. But it was just those eyes which displeased Jessie, for she
+felt instinctively that her whole character was being put to the proof
+by them. The same observant glance which had met hers in the first
+moment of their acquaintance rested steadily on her countenance. Mr.
+Sandow, junior, was openly examining her, as the first paragraph of the
+business contract clearly entitled him to do, and that was amply
+sufficient to awake the most decided opposition in the mind of the
+young lady. He began the conversation by remarking--
+
+"I am unfortunately quite unacquainted with your home. I come, an
+inexperienced European, as if fallen from the clouds into the new
+world, and count upon your friendly support."
+
+"I think you will find the help of your brother better, and more to be
+relied on, than any I might venture to give."
+
+"No doubt, as far as business affairs are concerned. Under all other
+circumstances, however, he seems to me rather unapproachable, and then
+there are some subjects with which I should like to make myself
+acquainted by the way."
+
+By the way! Yes, just so, by the way, so should a marriage be
+considered a life-long bond which others are accustomed to regard as
+the highest and holiest. The "inexperienced European" seemed to look on
+life quite from his brother's point of view, and to consider such
+relations as merely of secondary importance.
+
+"But no doubt they are entirely business affairs which bring you here,"
+said Jessie, not without irony. "As far as I know, you intend to enter
+our firm?"
+
+"Certainly! My brother has made that an indispensable condition."
+
+"Condition! Were you not, then, free to act as you chose, Mr. Sandow?
+But I forgot; no doubt it concerns the inheritance of your brother's
+fortune."
+
+The stab struck home; that was seen in the sudden flash of the dark
+eyes, but it produced no other effect, for Gustave replied with the
+most delightful candour--
+
+"Quite right; the inheritance. It really was in jeopardy had I
+declined. My brother was quite capable of leaving the whole of his
+means to a philanthropical institution had I not obeyed his wishes."
+
+Jessie hardly knew whether to be more surprised or annoyed at the
+openness with which this man acknowledged that he had come to America
+merely for the sake of the money. And this he declared before the woman
+whose hand and fortune were both destined for him, and in whom
+annoyance at last gained the upper hand as she replied--
+
+"Till now I did not know that calculation was so well understood in
+Germany."
+
+"Oh! thank God at last we are becoming a practical people," said
+Gustave, with unalterable composure. "We have been long about it, but
+now we are making undeniable progress. You seem to consider it a
+reproach, Miss Clifford!"
+
+"No; but I learnt to look on the land to which my mother belonged, and
+which she taught me to regard as a second home, from quite another
+side."
+
+"From the ideal side probably. Now I will not deny that this also
+exists; but, on the whole, people are now sweeping away the ideal from
+amongst us. There are only a few who still acknowledge it in word or
+deed."
+
+"Just on that account should the few gather round their threatened
+colours, and venture life and blood for their sake!"
+
+The phrase sounded rather peculiar in the mouth of a young girl, but
+she was plainly understood. Again the dark eyes flashed, but this time
+in unconcealed surprise.
+
+"Ah! how flattering! A quotation from one of my own articles! You know
+them then?"
+
+"The journal with which you are connected is one of the greatest
+political importance," said Jessie coolly. "It has always been read in
+our house. But just because I know your articles, does it surprise me
+that you were able to release yourself so easily and completely from
+all the bonds which held you to your native country."
+
+"You mean the duties to which I am bound by my connection with the
+journal!" remarked Gustave. "There were certainly difficulties, but
+they have been arranged according to my wishes. One journalist more or
+less in Germany makes no difference, and my pen has been long since
+replaced by another, and, no doubt, a better one."
+
+Jessie pressed her lips together. This wilful misunderstanding angered
+her inexpressibly, and she was still more annoyed at the persevering
+gaze, which yet had nothing obtrusive, but strove to conceal itself
+under the appearance of an animated conversation. In spite of this
+Jessie had the sensation that her whole character was being thoroughly
+studied, and this drove her by degrees from her reserve into a state of
+irritation entirely foreign to her disposition.
+
+"I did not know I had such an attentive reader on this side the ocean,"
+Gustave continued, in the most amiable manner. "Since I have learnt the
+fact, I should like to beg for your criticism. You have declared
+already that you love my home like a second fatherland. May I, then,
+reckon on your sympathy for all that my pen describes?"
+
+"You have given up your literary career," remarked Jessie, "for a more
+advantageous one."
+
+"Yes; I yielded to the force of circumstances. That does not seem to be
+judged favourably, but perhaps the author finds more grace in your eyes
+than the future partner in the firm of Clifford and Company."
+
+"At all events, I can admire the ease with which the one has been
+metamorphosed into the other."
+
+It was an annihilating look which accompanied the words, but Gustave
+Sandow was not to be so easily annihilated. He bore the look calmly,
+and his reply betrayed even a certain humour, which increased the
+growing irritation of the young lady.
+
+"The criticism is not a favourable one, I see. But that is just the
+reason why I must hear it. You must not withhold your bad opinion from
+me, Miss Clifford. I insist upon knowing my sentence."
+
+"Without reserve?"
+
+"Quite without reserve."
+
+"Well, then, Mr. Sandow, I declare openly to you that I have read with
+the fullest sympathy and admiration everything which came from your
+pen, till the moment when you accepted your brother's proposal. I
+should never have thought it possible. I thought that anyone who
+devoted himself so entirely to his country as you did, who fought so
+energetically for its rights, who summoned others so stirringly to
+their duties, must also abide by the colours to which he had sworn
+fealty, and dare not forsake them for mere fortune's sake. I could not
+believe that the pen from which flowed such glowing words should serve
+for the future to write figures, and only figures; that the undaunted
+champion should of his own free-will throw down his weapons, and quit
+the lists, to take a comfortable seat at the office desk. I doubted the
+possibility till the moment of your arrival, and that I must at last
+believe it--that is the bitterest disappointment of my life!"
+
+Jessie felt herself to be drawn on by her excitement to insult the man
+who sat before her, but she cared not for that. She saw in him only the
+adversary, only the importunate suitor, whom she would keep at a
+distance cost what it might. Let him feel in the first hour how deeply
+she despised his selfishness, then there would be no room to doubt how
+she felt about the marriage scheme, and she was safe from his wooing.
+But he did not appear very sensitive to insult, for he maintained the
+most perfect composure.
+
+"Miss Clifford, for a merchant's daughter, and the sleeping partner in
+a great mercantile house, you appear to nourish very disrespectful
+ideas of accounts and the office desk," said he, with revolting
+indifference. "My brother would be shocked. I feel myself extremely
+flattered that my modest pen has had the power of awakening so much
+interest, and as to the disappointment, I do not give up the hope of at
+last succeeding in bringing you to a better opinion of my performances
+at the office desk."
+
+Jessie made no reply. She completely lost her self-control at this way
+of turning affront into compliment, and at the smiling calm with which
+the man[oe]uvre was carried out.
+
+Fortunately at this moment the door opened, and Sandow entered.
+
+"The telegrams are sent off," said he. "Now I am again at your
+disposal. I suppose dinner will soon be ready, Jessie?"
+
+"I have still some necessary orders to give, which I will do at once."
+
+And hastily, as if taking to flight before the new arrival, but not
+without casting on him another glance of contempt, she left the room.
+
+"Well, what do you think of Jessie?" said Sandow, as soon as the
+brothers were alone; "and what progress have you made with her?"
+
+"Progress! Surely, Frank, you did not quite expect me to make her a
+proposal of marriage at the first interview!"
+
+"But at least you might lead the way to it."
+
+"The way has opened most successfully," Gustave assured him. "We have
+already had a most lively dispute."
+
+"Dispute! What do you mean?" and Sandow, who had seated himself near
+his brother, looked up as if he could hardly believe his ears. "Is that
+the way you begin your courtship?"
+
+"Why not? At least it prevents indifference. That I certainly need not
+fear from Miss Clifford. She is prejudiced against me to the highest
+degree, and looks upon my leaving my country at your call as a kind of
+treachery against it."
+
+"Yes, the girl has her head full of romantic ideas," said Sandow
+angrily. "That is owing to the sentimental, high-flown education she
+received from her mother. Clifford could not be induced to oppose it,
+although otherwise his understanding was healthy enough. He idolized
+his only daughter, and thought her everything that is good and
+beautiful. You will have to contend with these exaggerated ideas when
+Jessie is your wife."
+
+Around Gustave Sandow's lips played a half ironical smile as he
+replied--
+
+"Do you, then, think it is a settled thing that she will become my
+wife? At present I seem to have the most brilliant prospects of
+refusal."
+
+"Stupid girlish whims! nothing more. She has taken it into her head
+that marriage must be preceded by a love romance. But you"--and here
+Sandow's eyes rested on his brother's handsome person--"it need not be
+difficult for you to gain ground with her, and my authority will do the
+rest. Jessie is far too dependent a character not to be led at last."
+
+"Well, I have not seen any symptoms of this dependence myself,"
+remarked Gustave drily. "Miss Clifford was tolerably energetic when she
+gave me the flattering information that my acquaintance was one of the
+bitterest disappointments of her life."
+
+Sandow wrinkled his forehead.
+
+"She told you that!"
+
+"Literally, and accompanied the speech with the necessary air of
+dislike and contempt. She is a quite peculiar mixture of maidenly
+reserve and genuine American self-consciousness. In our country a young
+girl would hardly have read a total stranger such a lecture."
+
+"Oh! no; Jessie is thoroughly German," said Sandow. "She is the living
+image of her mother, and has not a single trait of her American father.
+But never mind that now. Let us come to the point. I never felt any
+doubt as to your acceptance of my proposal; that it has taken place so
+quickly and unreservedly is very agreeable to me, since it proves that,
+in spite of all your idealistic scribbling, you have managed to
+preserve a clear, cool head capable of making a calculation, which is
+just what is wanted here. Jessie is in every respect a brilliant match,
+such as you would scarcely have found under other circumstances. For
+me, the first recommendation of the plan is that it will keep
+Clifford's money in the firm. Our interests are therefore identical,
+and I hope we shall be satisfied with each other."
+
+"I hope so too," said Gustave laconically.
+
+The purely business view taken by his brother of the projected marriage
+seemed to surprise him as little as the judgment on his scribbling hurt
+him.
+
+"The arrangement, then, remains as settled in our letters," continued
+Sandow. "For the present you enter the office as a volunteer in order
+to learn your new calling. That is not difficult for anyone gifted with
+the necessary education and intelligence. All beyond requires merely
+habit and practice. As soon as your engagement with Jessie is openly
+announced, you will have a share in the business. So don't delay your
+explanation too long. As an heiress, Jessie is naturally much run
+after, and in little more than a year she will be of age. Besides, at
+the present moment I have some large undertakings in view, and must be
+certain of complete control over the whole capital."
+
+"And therefore Miss Clifford and I must marry," added Gustave. "One
+sees that you are accustomed to make the most of a fortunate
+conjuncture, whether of men or dollars."
+
+There was a touch of mockery in these words, but Sandow did not appear
+to notice it. In his reply lay the same icy indifference which he had
+displayed in his conversation with Jessie.
+
+"One must reckon with men as with figures; in that lies the whole
+secret of success. At all events, you have every reason to thank the
+present conjuncture. Besides all the other advantages, it secures my
+money to you. You know I have no other relative or heir."
+
+"No other! Really?" asked Gustave in a peculiar tone, while he gazed
+fixedly at his brother.
+
+"No!"
+
+In that one short word what unbounded severity and determination!
+
+"Then you have not altered your views. I thought that now years have
+rolled by you might have learnt to look differently on the past."
+
+"Silence!" interrupted Sandow. "Name it not! The past has no existence,
+shall have no existence for me. I buried it when I left Europe for
+ever."
+
+"And the recollection of it too!"
+
+"Certainly! and I will not have it recalled by others. You have already
+attempted it several times in your letters, and I imagined my dislike
+to the subject had been shown plainly enough. Why do you always return
+to it? Is it to distress me, or"--here he fixed a threatening,
+penetrating look on his brother--"does some scheme lie at the bottom of
+this persistency?"
+
+Gustave shrugged his shoulders slightly.
+
+"Why should you think that? I asked in my own interests. Since the
+question of inheritance is now before us, you can easily understand the
+motive."
+
+"Decidedly. You have become uncommonly practical I see, and it is much
+better for you to have become so without paying the heavy price for
+your experience which mine has cost me."
+
+Gustave became suddenly serious, and laid his hand on his brother's
+arm.
+
+"Yes, Frank, a heavy price it must indeed have been, since it has made
+you another man. I do not find a single trace of what you were at
+home."
+
+Sandow laughed bitterly.
+
+"No, thank God! there is not much left of the soft-hearted fool who
+lived for every one, who trusted every one, and in the end must pay the
+price of his blind faith like a criminal. Whenever that blind
+confidence has cost a man, as it has me, honour, happiness, nay,
+existence itself, he will for the future manage his affairs after a
+different fashion. But now, not another word of the past. I have cast
+it from me; let it rest."
+
+"Dinner is ready," announced a servant, throwing open the door.
+
+The brothers rose; the turn the conversation had taken made any
+interruption welcome to both. They entered the adjoining dining-room,
+where Jessie already awaited them. Gustave had in a moment regained his
+usual manner. He approached the young lady and offered her his arm as
+if nothing in the world had come between them.
+
+"Miss Clifford, I have the honour to introduce myself as a volunteer in
+the house of Clifford and Company. I may, therefore, now regard you as
+my second chief, and respectfully offer you my humble services."
+
+And without paying any attention to the frigid manner of his second
+chief, he took the arm which Jessie did not dare to refuse, and led her
+to the table.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+
+The house of Clifford, as already hinted, was one of the most important
+in the town. The numerous staff of clerks and attendants, and the
+constant activity which reigned there, betrayed even to a stranger the
+importance of the great mercantile house, whose head, indeed, held a
+most conspicuous place in the commercial world. Gustave Sandow, who,
+though now holding the modest post of a volunteer, was destined later
+to share that dignity, had now entered on his new calling, but showed
+so far very little enthusiasm for it. His brother noticed with great
+displeasure that he looked on the whole thing as a kind of
+entertainment with which he amused himself, and of which the chief
+attraction was its novelty. He allowed little indeed to be seen of the
+austere dignity of the future partner, while he made extensive use of
+his freedom as a volunteer. The various objects of interest in the
+town, its environs, its society, seemed far more attractive to him than
+his brother's office. The latter remarked on it in his usual sharp
+manner, and requested that more interest might be shown in business
+matters.
+
+Gustave acknowledged in every respect the justice of his brother's
+observations, but continued as regularly to do what pleased him best,
+and offered to all reproaches the declaration that at present he was
+only a guest, and must be allowed to make himself at home in his new
+surroundings.
+
+Between himself and Miss Clifford had arisen a curious, half
+antagonistic, half confidential relation. On the whole they were always
+prepared for war, and Jessie did her best to maintain that state of
+affairs. But it was difficult enough, for her adversary displayed such
+unwearying politeness and amiability as left her few occasions for the
+contrary. The certainly not very flattering estimate of his character
+which had been forced upon him in the very first hour of their
+acquaintanceship had obviously affected him very little. On his side he
+was full of attentions, with which he managed to mingle very adroitly
+the friendly confidence of a household companion, and Jessie saw with
+horror the courtship from which she had considered herself entirely
+free deliberately unfolded before her.
+
+It was morning, about a week after the arrival of the new acquaintance.
+Breakfast was just over. Gustave was giving Miss Clifford a sketch of
+some of his travelling experiences, which he did with such sparkling
+animation and such vivid colouring as enchained Jessie's attention
+against her will.
+
+Sandow, on the other hand, was occupied in looking for some business
+papers in his pocket-book, and listened only with half an ear.
+
+When his brother had finished, he said satirically--
+
+"One would really believe that you had undertaken the journey merely to
+find materials for some future article on the political or artistic
+views entertained here. Landscape, architecture, national life, you
+have lost no opportunities of studying, but the business you should
+have made the main interest is scarcely alluded to. You certainly went
+everywhere that my introductions would take you, but seem only to have
+dined with the firms and talked about politics afterwards."
+
+"You surely did not expect us to take our business to table with us!"
+cried Gustave. "That is a pleasure which only you provide for your
+guests. I believe you would hail it as a most blessed discovery if
+eating and sleeping could be dispensed with altogether. What an
+incalculable gain in hours of business for much-tormented mankind!"
+
+Jessie cast a half terrified glance at her guardian. She knew that this
+was a very tender point with him. Gustave knew it too, yet every day he
+ventured on such remarks to his face. He understood most perfectly how
+to parry the masterful and sometimes offensive manner of his brother,
+so that he never allowed himself to appear corrected or in any way
+subordinate.
+
+Sandow, whose strength did not lie in repartee, generally quitted the
+field when he began in that tone of mockery. So he now rose, and,
+closing his pocket-book, sarcastically replied--
+
+"Well, you certainly do not belong to the much-tormented class; you
+take your life easily enough. But I want to speak to you for a few
+minutes in my room before we go to the office. It concerns the New York
+affair."
+
+"I will come immediately," returned his brother, who, however, remained
+calmly seated while the other left the room, and then, turning to
+Jessie, asked--
+
+"Have you ever seen such a business maniac as my brother, Miss
+Clifford? At breakfast he makes business notes, at dinner he reads the
+money article, and I am convinced that he speculates in his dreams."
+
+"Yes, he possesses a most untiring activity," replied Jessie, "and he
+looks for the same thing in other people. You should not keep him
+waiting, for I am sure he wants to speak to you particularly."
+
+Gustave paid not the least attention to this broad hint to depart.
+
+"It concerns Jenkins and Co. That agreeable firm actually besieges us
+with letters and telegrams respecting a common speculation. I am not at
+all in a hurry to talk about it, and my brother is very considerate
+when he knows I am with you."
+
+That was unquestionably the case. For various reasons Sandow favoured
+in every way the growing intimacy between his brother and his ward, and
+even would go so far as to forgive a want of punctuality occasionally.
+
+The hint to this effect was, however, very ungraciously received by the
+young lady. She thought best to maintain perfect silence.
+
+"Besides that, I have a great desire to speak to you alone," continued
+Gustave. "For several days I have sought an opportunity in vain."
+
+An icy, long-drawn "Indeed!" was the only reply.
+
+So really after an acquaintanceship of scarcely a week, this man dared
+to approach her with his proposals, in spite of her distant demeanour,
+her plainly shown aversion. In spite of all he would try to complete
+the business contract which gave him the hand of the rich heiress, and
+still worse, with an easy assurance as if undeniably in the right.
+
+"I have a petition to offer," he began afresh, "a petition which, by
+granting you will make me for ever your debtor."
+
+Miss Clifford looked as if carved out of stone, and her manner left no
+doubt that she had not the slightest intention of placing him "for ever
+in her debt." She summoned all her energies together to meet the
+approaching emergency with the necessary decision.
+
+Gustave paid not the least attention to her, and continued with his
+usual genial smile--
+
+"It concerns a young countrywoman of mine!"
+
+"A--young countrywoman?" repeated Jessie, astonished to the last degree
+at the unexpected turn which the conversation had taken.
+
+"Yes, a young German who came over in the same ship with me. She was
+going quite alone to a relative in New York, who had offered the orphan
+a home with him. On landing, however, she learnt that he had died a few
+days before, and the poor child found herself quite unprotected and
+forsaken in the New World."
+
+"You took charge of her," remarked Jessie, with a certain sharpness.
+
+"Certainly; I took her to a German family, where she could be received
+for a few days. But she cannot stay there long, and it must be a very
+difficult thing for a girl of scarcely sixteen, and without an
+introduction, to find a situation as governess or companion. Here in
+this town it might be more feasible, especially if a well-known house
+such as yours undertook to introduce her. My petition is this, will you
+receive this young girl for a few weeks as a guest till something may
+be found for her?"
+
+Generally Jessie was only too ready to help whenever it lay in her
+power, and a countrywoman of her mother's had naturally every claim
+upon her sympathy, but the side from which the demand came caused it to
+fill her with the darkest suspicions. In her eyes Gustave Sandow was
+not the man to help any fellow-creature from pure philanthropy. Such an
+egoist must certainly have other motives for his actions, and she
+returned a very cautious answer.
+
+"This takes me quite by surprise. I am to receive a total stranger,
+who, as you acknowledge, is entirely destitute of introductions?"
+
+"I undertake the responsibility," cried Gustave eagerly. "Any security
+you can desire I will give."
+
+"Oh, indeed!"
+
+A light began to dawn upon her. She saw the dreaded offer vanish into
+the distance. A way of escape which she had never thought of suddenly
+opened before her.
+
+"You seem to know your protégée very thoroughly, Mr. Sandow, and to
+take an extraordinary interest in her."
+
+"Certainly I do. Towards an orphan that is the duty of every
+Christian."
+
+"I was not aware that you were such a good Christian," said Jessie,
+with unconcealed irony.
+
+"Then, Miss Clifford, you have misunderstood me in that as in so many
+other respects. Where humanity is concerned my opinions are in the
+highest degree Christian," declared Sandow solemnly.
+
+Jessie's lips curled scornfully at the word "humanity," but the thing
+began to interest her, so she asked--
+
+"Then you wish for an invitation to our house for"--
+
+"Miss Frida Palm, that is her name."
+
+"I will speak to my guardian about it, and if he is willing"--
+
+"Oh! pray do not; that is just what I am most anxious to avoid,"
+interrupted Gustave. "I do not wish my brother to know anything of my
+appeal to you. Would it not be possible to give out that Miss Palm is a
+protégée of your own, recommended by some New York acquaintance, and
+whom you have agreed to receive? The suggestion is rather singular, I
+see that in your manner, so I place myself and my petition entirely in
+your hands."
+
+Jessie's manner certainly showed how surprised she was. She bent on the
+speaker a long, searching look.
+
+"Indeed, a very extraordinary demand. You really ask that we should
+literally perform a comedy, in order that you may gain a point with my
+guardian! With what object?"
+
+"Certainly with no bad object, even if for the present that must remain
+my secret."
+
+"Your secret is not hard to guess, at least for me," said Jessie
+sarcastically, but still with a feeling of intense relief at the turn
+things had taken. "Only acknowledge openly that your interest in this
+young lady is a much deeper and more serious one than appears, and that
+you have a decided object to gain in bringing her here."
+
+Apparently overwhelmed, Gustave drooped his head.
+
+"I acknowledge it."
+
+"And for more than one reason you fear that your brother will be
+opposed to this interest."
+
+"I allow that too."
+
+"Therefore Miss Palm is to appear unacknowledged in our house, that,
+through her personal qualities she may gain sympathy and consideration,
+until you may venture to declare the truth."
+
+"Miss Clifford, you have incredible penetration," said Gustave, in the
+tone of deepest admiration. "It is quite impossible to hide anything
+from you. Now that you have so completely seen through me, may I reckon
+on your support?"
+
+The young lady assumed a very dignified manner.
+
+"I have never yet condescended to an untruth, and would never do it
+if"--
+
+She stopped, and a passing blush tinged her cheek.
+
+"If it were not for certain plans of my brother's," added Gustave. "You
+do not agree with them; that I saw on the day of my arrival. But just
+on that account you need not fear that I have any doubt as to the
+reasons of your confederacy. They are certainly not flattering to me,
+but in this instance decidedly advantageous."
+
+"Advantageous!" echoed Jessie, in a contemptuous tone. "Quite right;
+that is sufficient for you. You fear a breach with your brother if you
+make a choice without his consent, and, as far as I know him, this
+would be the case since your choice has fallen on a poor and friendless
+orphan. It is certainly advantageous if you try to gain your end by
+circuitous means. But how much more manly it would be to go to your
+brother and openly declare your love, bidding defiance to his anger.
+But on such points our ideas are quite opposed. Let Miss Palm know that
+I shall expect her. She can start immediately on receiving your
+letter."
+
+"That is not at all necessary," replied Gustave calmly. "I have already
+written to her; she is on her way, and this afternoon will arrive
+here."
+
+This was rather too strong for Jessie. She looked at the daring visitor
+with disdain.
+
+"So that was already decided. You are very considerate, Mr. Sandow."
+
+"I reckoned on your good heart," he assured her, with a deep bow.
+
+"You reckoned far more on your brother's plans, which have, half
+against my will, made me your confederate. So be it then. I will do my
+best to afford you the advantage of maintaining a good understanding
+with your brother. As soon as your fiancée arrives, bring her to me,
+and for the present she shall pass as my protégée."
+
+And, with a very cold and distant bow, Jessie swept from the room.
+
+Gustave looked after her with a very peculiar smile on his lips.
+
+"Every inch contempt! But it suits her splendidly. Certainly I play a
+very pitiful part in the story; that, however, is nothing; if Frida can
+only make good her footing in the house, that is the point."
+
+In her room Jessie walked about in violent excitement. She was really
+rejoiced that the dreaded suitor should in this way prove himself
+perfectly harmless, and that he himself lent a hand to the destruction
+of the hated marriage scheme; but that did not in the least diminish
+her indignation at the selfishness and avarice of the man who had
+displayed anew all the meanness of his character. Yet he loved, this
+man, and apparently truly and disinterestedly. Just on the way to the
+wealthy, unloved bride, whom his brother had so carefully selected for
+him, a young, forsaken, unprotected orphan had succeeded in awakening a
+real affection in his heart. What hindered him, then, from introducing
+his chosen bride to his brother? And if Sandow really showed himself
+obstinate and unreasonable, he might then return with her to Germany.
+He had occupied an independent position there, which would be
+immediately open to him again, and which would permit him to marry
+without the consent of his brother. But then his chance of that
+brother's wealth would be in jeopardy, and at any price that rich
+inheritance must be secured. Therefore the affianced bride must be
+content to play the part of a stranger, all kinds of underhand modes of
+gaining his end would be attempted, and a regular intrigue set on foot
+in order to wheedle the rich brother to consent, and if, in spite of
+all, he persisted in a decided refusal--and Jessie knew that her
+guardian, who always measured men by the length of their purses, would
+never welcome a poor sister-in-law--then, no doubt, the daring champion
+of the Ideal would choose the money, and leave the bride in the lurch,
+as he had already deserted his profession.
+
+Jessie's frank and open disposition rose in rebellion against the part
+forced on her; yet she felt it necessary to forward this union by every
+means in her power. She would at any cost avoid a serious struggle with
+her guardian. It was to a certain extent an act of necessity if she
+agreed to the proposal. Should they really succeed in gaining Sandow's
+consent then the threatening storm would pass completely away.
+
+It was remarkable that the one thing in Gustave's favour--his evident
+capacity for true love--was also the one thing most obnoxious to
+Jessie. She had so bitterly reproached him for yielding so
+unresistingly to the business calculations of his brother, and now,
+when she learnt that in his heart he had thwarted, and wished entirely
+to defeat those plans, she was more prejudiced against him than ever.
+She was thoroughly convinced that this man was only worthy of contempt,
+and that she felt sure of always, and under all circumstances,
+bestowing upon him.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+Meanwhile Gustave Sandow had mounted to the higher story, where were
+situated his brother's private apartments.
+
+"I began to think you would not condescend to come at all," was the
+remark, delivered in his sharpest and most unpleasant tone, with which
+he greeted the dilatory Gustave.
+
+"I was talking to Miss Clifford," replied Gustave, as if fully aware
+that that fact would completely justify him. "It was impossible to
+break off our interesting conversation sooner."
+
+The allusion did not fail of its effect. The projected marriage was too
+important to Sandow, and his ward's disinclination to it, too well
+known to him, to allow him to throw the slightest hindrance in the way
+of his brother's courtship. He therefore replied more graciously--
+
+"I suppose it was one of your usual altercations; you amuse yourselves
+with this continual wrangling; but I do not find that you make much
+progress with Jessie. She is more reserved than ever towards you."
+
+"Frank, you cannot judge of my progress,", said Gustave, with an
+injured air. "It is considerable I assure you."
+
+"We will hope so," replied Sandow, significantly, "and now to business.
+I want to talk to you of the affair, which I, and some business friends
+in New York contemplate taking in hand together. Jenkins tells me he
+has already spoken of it to you, and yesterday I gave you the
+correspondence to look over, so you must now be pretty well up in the
+subject."
+
+"Decidedly I am."
+
+Gustave had all at once become serious, and the answer rang quite
+differently from his usual cheerful, careless tone. Sandow took no
+notice of the change, but continued--
+
+"You know we possess in the West large districts which are not yet
+settled. The purchase was to be made under extremely advantageous
+circumstances; but the extent of territory was so enormous that Jenkins
+was not able to complete it with his own means alone. He therefore
+applied to me and won me over to his views. We were fortunate in
+obtaining the land for a very moderate sum, and what now concerns us is
+to have it occupied advantageously. This can only be done by
+colonisation, and German colonisation in particular seems most
+suitable. We have prepared all the necessary notices, and intend now to
+begin seriously."
+
+"Only one question," said Gustave, interrupting the dry business-like
+narration. "Have you any personal knowledge of your possessions?"
+
+"Why, I should not undertake such an extensive business without full
+information. Naturally I know all about it."
+
+"So do I," said Gustave laconically.
+
+Sandow started and drew back a step.
+
+"You! How? When? Is it possible?"
+
+"Certainly, and in the most simple manner. Mr. Jenkins, whom I looked
+up in New York at your express wish, explained to me when the
+conversation fell on this subject, that you reckoned greatly on me, or
+rather on my pen. I therefore held it necessary to make myself
+thoroughly acquainted with the whole affair. That was really the cause
+of my late arrival, and of my 'pleasure tour,' as you called it. Before
+all, I wished to know where my country people were to be sent."
+
+Sandow knitted his brows gloomily.
+
+"All this trouble was quite superfluous. We are not in the habit of
+going to work in such a circumstantial manner. But what seems to me
+very remarkable is, that you should have been here a whole week without
+giving me the slightest hint of your journey. But never mind. We
+certainly reckon much on you and your literary connections. Our agents
+will do their best, but that is not enough. People have become very
+suspicious about agents, and the outlay has been too great to let us
+run any risks. Our great wish is that one of the great influential
+German papers which stands above all suspicion of a puff, should open
+the subject in our interest. It is true that you are no longer on the
+staff of the _K--sche Zeitung_; but they regret having lost you, and
+would gladly receive your contributions from America. A series of
+articles written in your eloquent and brilliant style would secure our
+success, and if you use your other literary connections skilfully so as
+to make the thing widely known, there is no doubt that in a few years a
+great German emigration will take place."
+
+Gustave had listened in silence without offering the least
+interruption; but now he raised his eyes and fixed them earnestly on
+his brother's face.
+
+"You forget one trifle, which is that your territory is totally unfit
+for colonisation. The land lies as unfavourably as possible, the
+climate is in the highest degree unhealthy, indeed, in some seasons
+deadly. The soil is unproductive, and to the most gigantic efforts
+returns only the smallest results. All the aids of skilful cultivation
+are utterly wasted, and the few settlers who are scattered here and
+there are sunk in sickness and misery. They are exposed, utterly
+defenceless, to the rigour of the most cruel elements, and those who
+might follow them from Europe would share the same fate."
+
+Sandow listened with ever-growing surprise, and at first words failed
+him, at last he exclaimed angrily--
+
+"What absurd exaggerations! Who has put such ideas into your head, and
+how can an utter stranger judge of such circumstances? What can you
+know of it?"
+
+"I have made the strictest inquiries on the spot. My information is
+authentic."
+
+"Nonsense! And if it were what have I to do with it? Do you think that
+you, who have scarcely been a week in the counting-house, can give me
+instructions in the management of my speculations?"
+
+"Certainly not! But when such a speculation costs the life and health
+of thousands we are accustomed to call it by a different name."
+
+"By what name?" asked Sandow, threateningly, advancing close to his
+brother.
+
+Gustave would not be intimidated, but replied firmly--
+
+"Knavery!"
+
+"Gustave!" cried Sandow furiously, "you dare"--
+
+"Naturally that word applies only to Mr. Jenkins. The remarkable
+attention with which that honourable personage received me, the
+constant sounding of my praises, the popularity of my name, and the
+brilliant success of my pen, which were to work wonders here as they
+had done at home--all this roused my suspicions and induced me to
+undertake the journey. You don't know the place, Frank, or at all
+events have only glanced superficially at it. But now that I have
+opened your eyes you will seek for the proof of my assertions, and let
+the whole thing drop."
+
+Sandow did not seem much disposed to profit by the means of escape
+which his brother offered to him.
+
+"Who says I shall?" asked he harshly. "Do you think I can give up
+without an effort the hundreds of thousands already invested there,
+merely because you have some sentimental objections to urge. The land
+is as good or as bad as in many other districts, and the immigrants
+have to struggle with climate and soil everywhere. These difficulties
+will be easily overcome by perseverance. It would not be the first
+German colony which had flourished under most unfavourable
+circumstances."
+
+"After hundreds and thousands had been ruined! That is enriching
+foreign soil with German blood at too great a cost."
+
+Sandow bit his lips; he evidently controlled himself with difficulty,
+and his voice was hoarse and stifled as he replied.
+
+"What business had you to go there on your own account? Such
+exaggerated conscientiousness is here quite misplaced, and also quite
+useless. And if I did not accept Jenkins' offer there are plenty of
+others who would; and I must acknowledge that he applied to me first."
+
+"First to you--a German--that was certainly a sign of remarkable
+respect from an American."
+
+It was singular that the same man who a quarter of an hour before, had
+shown himself so anxious to conceal the choice of his heart from his
+austere brother, since it might displease him, now boldly defied him,
+under circumstances in which he could not be so profoundly interested.
+Sandow, though ignorant of his conversation with Jessie, was astonished
+to the highest degree at this conduct.
+
+"You seem to be now playing the part of moral hero," said he with
+bitter sarcasm; "that does not suit very well with the extremely
+material motives which brought you here. You should have first made
+things clear to yourself. If you want a share in my house you must set
+its interest before everything, and in that interest I require you to
+write this article, and take care that it appears in a suitable place.
+Do you hear, Gustave? Under any circumstances you will do that!"
+
+"To bring my countrymen here to rot in that swamp of fever and misery!
+No."
+
+"Consider the subject well before you give such a decided refusal,"
+warned Sandow with an icy calm, under which lay a half-concealed
+threat. "It is the first demand I make on you; if you fail me now, any
+future accommodation is impossible. It is quite in my power to draw
+back from the proposed arrangement; think of that!"
+
+"Frank, you would not force me"--
+
+"I force you to nothing; I only explain to you that we part if you
+persist in your refusal. If you are prepared for the consequences, well
+and good. I hold to my conditions."
+
+He bent over his writing table, and took from it some papers which he
+placed in his pocket-book. Gustave stood silently by, his eyes fixed on
+the floor, a dark cloud on his brow.
+
+"Just at the moment when Frida is on her way here," murmured he.
+"Impossible. I cannot sacrifice that."
+
+"Well?" asked Sandow, turning to him.
+
+"Give me time for consideration. The thing has come so suddenly, so
+unexpectedly. I will think it over."
+
+The elder brother was quite contented with this partial submission; he
+had certainly not doubted that his threat would produce its effect.
+
+"Good! a week sooner or later does not matter. I hope you will have
+sense to see that one must act according to circumstances. But come
+now, it is high time that we were at the office. And once more,
+Gustave, give yourself up to my guidance for the future, and undertake
+no more extravagances like this journey. You see, it only gives rise to
+differences between us, and increases the difficulties of your
+position."
+
+"Decidedly," said Gustave, half aloud, while he prepared to follow his
+brother. "My position is tolerably difficult, worse than I had
+anticipated."
+
+It was afternoon of the same day, and Jessie awaited with some anxiety
+and a great deal of curiosity the arrival of the young visitor. Gustave
+had told her in the morning that he should try to leave business
+earlier than usual, in order to meet Miss Palm at the station, and
+bring her to the house before his brother came home. At the appointed
+hour, then, he entered the drawing-room, leading a young girl.
+
+"Miss Frida Palm," said he, introducing her. "My protégée, from this
+moment _our_ protégée, since you are so good as to afford her an asylum
+in your house."
+
+Jessie felt painfully impressed by this mode of introduction. So he did
+not even venture to introduce the girl to her as his betrothed.
+"Protégée," that was a word open to so many interpretations. He
+intended evidently to leave himself a means of retreat, should his
+brother show himself unyielding. Miss Clifford pitied with her whole
+heart the young creature who had given herself to such an egoist, and
+consequently her reception was warmer than she had at first intended.
+
+"You are very welcome, Miss Palm," said she kindly; "I have heard all
+about you, and you may confide yourself to me without fear. I am not
+accustomed to neglect my protégées."
+
+The "I" was slightly but distinctly accented, but he, at whom the
+remark was directed, remained, alas, totally unmoved. He seemed
+extremely pleased that his plan had succeeded, and the young stranger
+replied in a low, rather trembling voice--
+
+"You are very kind, Miss Clifford, and I only hope that I may deserve
+your goodness."
+
+Jessie placed her visitor beside her, and while the usual remarks on
+the weather, her journey, and arrival were made, she took the
+opportunity of examining her more closely. She was certainly a very
+young girl, almost a child, who had evidently scarcely reached her
+sixteenth year, but the delicate childish features bore an expression
+of seriousness and decision, astonishing at such an age. The large,
+dark eyes generally rested on the ground, but when they were raised for
+a moment, they gave a glance full of shyness and restraint which suited
+ill with the energetic features. The dark hair was simply drawn back
+from her face, and the deep mourning dress made the young stranger
+appear even paler than she naturally was.
+
+"You are an orphan?" asked Jessie, with a glance at the dress.
+
+"I lost my mother six months ago," was the short, touching answer.
+
+That touched a kindred string in Jessie's bosom. She still mourned too
+for her beloved parents, and by the recollection came an expression of
+pain in her face.
+
+"In that our fates are alike. I am an orphan too, and it is only a year
+since my father was torn from me. Yours is, no doubt, much longer
+dead."
+
+The girl's lips trembled, and she replied almost inaudibly--
+
+"In my childhood. I scarcely knew him."
+
+"Poor child," said Jessie, with overflowing sympathy. "It must indeed
+be sad to stand so alone and desolate in the world."
+
+"Oh! I am not desolate. I have found a protector, the noblest and best
+of men!"
+
+In these words lay a truly affecting devotion, and the look which at
+the same moment was cast upon Gustave, betrayed an almost enthusiastic
+gratitude; the latter, however, received it all with enraging
+indifference, with the air of a sultan, as Jessie angrily considered.
+He appeared to look upon it as a richly deserved compliment, and
+replied in his usual jesting manner--
+
+"You see, Miss Clifford, what my reputation with Frida is. I should be
+happy if you would come round to this opinion too, which, alas, I dare
+not hope."
+
+Jessie ignored this remark. To her the manner in which he received the
+devotion of his future wife, and treated it as a subject for jesting
+was quite revolting, and she returned to Miss Palm.
+
+"At present I must welcome you alone. You do not yet know my guardian,
+but in a short time you will meet him, and I hope with all my heart
+that you will succeed in gaining his sympathy."
+
+Frida made no reply; she looked in the same timid manner at the
+speaker, and then dumbly at the ground. Jessie was rather surprised at
+this strange reception of her kindly meant words, but Gustave joined in
+the conversation, with the remark--
+
+"At first you must have great consideration for Frida. It will be
+difficult for her to accustom herself to her new surroundings, and the
+part which she is forced to play in the house oppresses and terrifies
+her."
+
+"Forced at your desire!" Jessie could not refrain from adding.
+
+"Yes, that cannot now be altered. At all events she knows the
+conditions, and also that there is no other way of reaching our end.
+Frida, you confide entirely in me, don't you?"
+
+Instead of answering, Frida stretched her hand towards him, with an
+expression which would have excused any lover for pressing the little
+hand to his lips. But this one calmly held it in his own, nodded
+protectingly, and said--
+
+"I was sure of it."
+
+"I will do all in my power to relieve what is painful in your
+position," said Jessie, reassuringly. "And now may I keep you with me?"
+
+"We had better wait till to-morrow," said Gustave. "It would very much
+surprise my brother to find a complete stranger, of whose arrival he
+had not even been warned, established as a member of his household.
+That might at once arouse his suspicions. It would be better for Frida
+to return to the hotel where I stopped with her and left her things. In
+the course of the evening some opportunity of speaking of her is sure
+to arise, and then the removal can be effected without any trouble."
+
+Jessie was annoyed at the suggestion, in proportion as she recognized
+its justice.
+
+"You are incredibly prudent, Mr. Sandow! I really admire all these
+precautions, and this clever calculation of all possible emergencies."
+
+Gustave bowed as if he had really received a compliment.
+
+"Yes, yes, Frida," said he, in reply to the look of surprise with which
+the girl listened to this perpetual bickering. "Miss Clifford and I
+have an excessive mutual admiration. You see already, what great
+respect we show each other. But now it is time to start, or my brother
+will surprise us here."
+
+Frida rose obediently. Jessie felt a deep sympathy with the poor girl
+who resigned herself so completely to the selfish plans of her lover,
+and bade her a hearty farewell.
+
+Gustave accompanied Miss Palm to the carriage, which waited to take her
+back to the hotel; but just as they were descending the steps a second
+carriage drove up, and Sandow, whose office hours were now over,
+stepped out.
+
+"My brother," said Gustave in a low voice.
+
+Miss Palm must have stood greatly in awe of this terrible brother, for
+she suddenly turned deadly pale, and made an involuntary movement as if
+to fly, while the arm which rested in her companion's trembled
+violently.
+
+"Frida!" said the latter, in an earnest, reproachful tone.
+
+Frida struggled for composure, but her timidity this time was not the
+cause of her agitation. It was not the look of a startled dove which
+met the new arrival, but one in which lay gloomy, almost wild
+resistance, and the energetic side of her nature was shown so
+distinctly in her features that it seemed as if she were rather
+beginning a struggle with a dreaded enemy than trying to conciliate
+him.
+
+Sandow had meanwhile entered, and met the pair face to face in the
+vestibule. He bowed slightly, but seemed surprised to see his brother
+accompanied by a perfect stranger.
+
+Frida returned the greeting, but instead of stopping hastened anxiously
+forwards, and thus prevented the possibility of an introduction.
+
+Gustave saw that it would be useless to try to effect it, so placed her
+in the carriage, closed the door, and directed the coachman to the
+hotel.
+
+"Who is that girl?" asked Sandow, who had waited for his brother.
+
+"A certain Miss Palm," said he lightly, "an acquaintance of Miss
+Clifford's."
+
+"And to whom you act as cavalier."
+
+"Not at all; my service is paid to Miss Clifford. At her wish, I
+fetched the young lady, in whom she is much interested, from the
+station, and brought her here. You know I left the office earlier than
+usual."
+
+"Ah, indeed! Are you already on such good terms with Jessie that she
+entrusts you with such commissions?" said Sandow, much gratified to
+find his brother had made such decided progress, while they re-ascended
+the stairs and walked along the corridor together.
+
+As they entered the drawing-room, Gustave took the thing promptly in
+hand.
+
+"My brother has already seen your protégée, Miss Clifford," he began.
+"We met him in the hall."
+
+"Who is this new acquaintance, Jessie?" asked Sandow, with an interest
+not usual to him. "I have heard nothing about her."
+
+Jessie felt now, when the moment for the first equivocation had
+arrived, the whole weight of the responsibility she had undertaken;
+however, she had gone too far to be able to draw back. She returned
+hesitatingly,
+
+"She is a young German, who has been strongly recommended to me from
+New York. She has come here to look for a situation as companion, and I
+thought--I wished"--
+
+"Yes, you have gone pretty far," interrupted Gustave. "This Miss Palm
+seems to have taken your sympathies by storm; just think, Frank, Miss
+Clifford has offered her her own house, and seriously intends to give
+her to us for a companion."
+
+Jessie cast an indignant glance at him, but was obliged to accept the
+proffered help.
+
+"I have certainly invited Miss Palm for a few weeks," she said. "At
+least, if you have no objection, Uncle Sandow."
+
+"I," said the latter absently, while his eyes already sought the
+evening papers, which lay on the table on the garden terrace. "You
+know, I never interfere in your domestic concerns. No doubt you would
+like a companion for a time, and if this young girl has been well
+recommended, pray arrange the affair as you like."
+
+With this he stepped on to the terrace and seized the newspaper.
+
+"I saw that I must come to your help, Miss Clifford," said Gustave
+aside to Jessie. "You are evidently very inexperienced in deception."
+
+"You seem to think it a reproach," said Jessie, in a voice equally low,
+but trembling with anger. "Certainly I have not yet brought the art to
+such perfection as you have."
+
+"Oh! that will come in time," said Gustave encouragingly. "When you are
+in difficulties that way, only turn to me. I am quite at home there."
+
+"Gustave, have you read the evening papers yet?" came from Sandow on
+the terrace. "The German Exchange is very lively; prices are rising
+considerably. Here is your own journal; you will find a notice of it."
+
+"Ah! prices are rising? really?" asked Gustave, stepping on to the
+terrace and taking the German paper which his brother offered him.
+
+Sandow immediately buried himself in another sheet, and so did not see
+the air of sovereign contempt with which Gustave turned over the page
+containing the money article, and bestowed his whole attention upon the
+leading article, which was upon the political situation.
+
+Jessie followed him with her eyes, and, as she beheld him bending so
+eagerly over what she supposed to be the money article, she curled her
+lip contemptuously, and thought--
+
+"That poor, poor child! What will be her lot at the side of such an
+egoist?"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+
+Gustave's scheme, which was imagined and carried out with equal skill,
+had now been realized. The entrance of the young stranger into the
+family took place the next day, but so easily and naturally was it
+managed, that Sandow had not the faintest suspicion of anything
+unusual. But Frida was, and remained, a stranger in the strange house,
+however hard and determined the struggle to appear at ease, and to show
+her gratitude for the protection afforded her. Perhaps the unaccustomed
+splendour of her surroundings oppressed her, for unquestionably they
+stood out in sharpest contrast to her former life. She remained silent
+and self-contained, and all the kindness with which Jessie received her
+did not succeed in thawing her shy reserve.
+
+Miss Clifford tried in vain to learn more of the family circumstances
+and former life of the girl; Frida seemed purposely to avoid any such
+conversations, and even the warm and freely displayed sympathy of the
+other failed to draw from her one word of confidence. That naturally
+tended to estrange Jessie, especially as she soon discovered that the
+stranger by no means belonged to those gentle natures which tremble
+away from all that is strange or painful. On the contrary, Frida often
+unconsciously betrayed a very energetic will, a repressed but profound
+passion. And yet this slavish subjection and obedience to another's
+will; it was incomprehensible.
+
+Gustave played his part far more successfully. He showed himself in his
+brother's presence polite, but with the politeness of a perfect
+stranger. Not a word, not the slightest sign, betrayed any mental
+understanding, or even suggested a closer acquaintance than appeared;
+never for one moment did he lose his self-control. He seemed still more
+agreeable and high-spirited than ever, and all Jessie's attempts to
+make him feel her contempt met with such a ready sarcasm that she
+invariably quitted the field.
+
+Sandow himself took little notice of Frida. Generally he showed little
+attention or interest in household matters. The greater part of the day
+was passed in town at the office, and the morning and evening hours,
+which were spent in the villa, instead of being dedicated to relaxation
+or amusement, were devoted to business occupations in his own rooms.
+
+He saw Frida only at table, and treated her with careless civility, and
+on her side there was no approach to a closer acquaintance, though she
+was there precisely with that object. But either she possessed no skill
+in that direction, or her obedience failed just where it was needed to
+fulfil her task. At all events, she and the man in whose house she was
+living were as strange to each other at the end of a week as they had
+been on her first arrival.
+
+The two gentlemen had just returned from town, and the whole party were
+seated at table. Gustave, who as usual bore the chief weight of the
+conversation, was amusing the ladies by describing in the most
+enjoyable manner, a scene which had taken place in the office during
+the afternoon. Sandow, who could not endure anything which concerned
+business to be turned into ridicule, put in a few contradictory
+remarks, but his brother continued to entertain his listeners with an
+account of the certainly comical misunderstanding.
+
+"I assure you it was incomparable, the excitement of this zealous agent
+of Jenkins and Co., who had come at full speed from New York, and
+persisted in taking me for a would-be settler, thirsting for a farm. He
+would have dragged mo by force to the other end of the world, that I
+might be made the happy possessor of a piece of land, and looked the
+picture of despair when my brother entered and put an end to the
+misunderstanding."
+
+"You brought it on yourself," said Sandow angrily. "You drove the man
+so into a corner with your endless questions that it was only natural
+that he should fall into the mistake."
+
+"Do I look like an intending farmer?" cried Gustave. "It is the first
+time in my life that any one has discovered in me an enthusiasm for
+spade and hoe. It would be, at all events, a fresh field of activity
+which I might attempt. I am only afraid that I should be worth still
+less there than at the office."
+
+"That would be difficult," said Sandow drily, but his brother only
+laughed at the implication, and observed to Miss Clifford that it was
+really incomprehensible how little recognition his valuable services at
+the desk received from any quarter.
+
+Frida had become attentive during the last dialogue. Usually she never
+joined uninvited in the conversation, but this time she listened with
+breathless interest, and then turned to Gustave with the question--
+
+"Jenkins and Co., the great firm in New York which is now sending out
+advertisements and agents for the German emigration?"
+
+"Quite right, Miss Palm," said Gustave. "Is the firm known to you?"
+
+"Not to me; I was only a few weeks in New York, but it was often spoken
+of in the German family where I lived. People spoke of it with much
+doubt, and considered it a misfortune that Jenkins should have drawn
+this also within the circle of his speculations."
+
+"Why? Does he not bear a good reputation?" asked Gustave, with apparent
+indifference.
+
+"That must be the case. They say he is the most unprincipled
+speculator, and has become rich through all kinds of dishonourable
+means, and would not for a moment hesitate to sacrifice to his avarice
+the welfare of all who confide in him."
+
+Jessie sat in painful confusion while listening to this unsuspecting
+remark. However ignorant she might be of the business affairs, she was
+aware, from many allusions, that her guardian had commercial
+intercourse with this firm.
+
+Sandow bit his lip, and was about to turn the conversation, when his
+brother said emphatically--
+
+"You must have been misinformed, Miss Palm. Jenkins and Co. belong to
+our business circle; indeed, we have done business with them for
+years."
+
+Frida turned pale. It was not embarrassment, but perfect horror that
+her features expressed, as if she could not, would not, believe what
+she had just heard.
+
+Now Sandow took up the conversation, and said in his sharpest tone--
+
+"You see, Miss Palm, how painful it may be when one believes such evil
+reports, and repeats them too. My brother is quite right. Mr. Jenkins
+is, and has long been, a business friend of mine."
+
+"Then I beg pardon; I had no idea of it," said Frida softly, but her
+pallor became more deadly, and suddenly she opened wide and full her
+dark eyes on the man before whom she had always shyly sunk them.
+
+There was something singular in these great dark eyes, something like a
+fearful doubt, an anxious question, and Sandow seemed to feel it, the
+proud, stiff-necked merchant, who bore no opposition, and had crushed
+to the ground all the efforts of his brother; he could not support this
+look. He turned hastily away, seized his glass, and emptied it at a
+draught.
+
+A painful silence, which lasted some moments, followed. Jessie tried at
+last to start another subject, and Gustave supported her to the best of
+his ability, but the attempt flagged.
+
+Sandow appeared unable to master his vexation. Frida sat speechless,
+and looked at her plate. It was a relief to all when the meal was over.
+The ladies left the room, and Gustave was just following them when his
+brother called him back.
+
+"What do you really think of this Miss Palm?"
+
+"That is hard to say. I have not spoken much with her; she seems very
+shy and reserved."
+
+"To judge by her appearance certainly, but I do not believe in it. In
+her eyes lies something far removed from shyness. Singular eyes! I have
+seen them distinctly to-day for the first time, and try in vain to
+remember where I have met them before. The girl has only just come to
+America?"
+
+ "About a month ago, I heard from Miss Clifford."
+
+"I remember Jessie told me so. And yet there is something familiar in
+those features, though I cannot recall what it is."
+
+Gustave examined closely the expression of his brother's face, while
+with apparent carelessness he replied--
+
+"Perhaps it is a passing likeness which you observe."
+
+"Likeness--with whom?" asked Sandow earnestly, while he supported his
+head on his hand, and lost in deepest meditation looked before him.
+
+All at once he arose, and, as if angry with himself at such involuntary
+interest, said--
+
+"Her remark at dinner was singularly wanting in tact."
+
+"She was certainly quite innocent of any ill intention. She could have
+had no suspicion of your connection with Jenkins, or she would have
+been silent. She just repeated what she had heard. You see what a
+reputation your 'friend' bears."
+
+Sandow shrugged his shoulders contemptuously.
+
+"With whom? With a few sentimental Germans, who have brought their
+narrow, provincial ideas from Europe with them, and are determined not
+to see that our commerce rests on quite other grounds. Whoever will be
+successful here must dare; and quite differently from in Europe, where
+people are still swayed by trivial circumstances. Clifford was one of
+the anxious and timid ones. I have had hard work enough to drive him
+forwards. Hence, up to the time of my arrival, he lived in very
+moderate circumstances; it was only when the guidance of the business
+fell into my hands that he became a rich man, and the firm entered the
+ranks of the best in the town. But while we are speaking of Jenkins,
+you have now had ample time to consider my request, and I await your
+final answer."
+
+"Then you are still determined to undertake the thing in conjunction
+with Jenkins?"
+
+"Certainly! Do you suppose that my opinion varies from day to day, or
+that childish chatter such as we have just heard could make me change?"
+
+"No, I do not suppose so, but that is just why it seemed strange to me
+that such 'childish gossip' should oblige you to cast down your eyes."
+
+"Gustave, take care!" cried Sandow, his growing passion hardly
+repressed. "I bear more from you than from anyone else, but this affair
+will positively separate us. I saw at a glance that you caused the
+misunderstanding with the agent on purpose to learn how far his
+instructions went, and I know, too, to whom the remark was directed
+with which you reproved Miss Palm. But you will gain nothing of me by
+such means. What I have once decided to do, that I will do, cost what
+it may, and for the last time I give you the choice; but, if you refuse
+me your assistance"--
+
+"You are mistaken," interrupted Gustave. "Some days ago I wrote to the
+_K--che Zeitung_ and asked for room for a long article on the subject;
+naturally they will be glad to have one from my pen. Most likely it
+will appear next month."
+
+Sandow was speechless. This quite unexpected submission astonished him
+greatly, and with a certain amount of suspicion he asked--
+
+"You will let me see the article before you send it?"
+
+"Certainly; you shall read it word for word."
+
+The clouds began to disappear from Sandow's brow.
+
+"I am glad, very glad. It would have been very painful to me if a
+refusal on your part had led to a breach between us."
+
+"On my account, or on that of the Clifford's money?" asked Gustave,
+with overflowing bitterness.
+
+"Jessie's fortune is not endangered by this speculation," said Sandow,
+shortly and emphatically. "It is principally placed in very good
+securities, and Clifford stated expressly in his will that his
+daughter's inheritance should not be risked in any speculation before
+she came of age or married. If it will soothe your tender conscience, I
+can assure you that your future wife has not the slightest interest in
+this affair. I have gone into it at my own risk, and stand to win or
+lose alone."
+
+He rose to go. Gustave rose too.
+
+"One more question, Frank. You have gone very heavily into this
+speculation?"
+
+"With half of all I possess! You see its success is most important to
+me; therefore I am very glad that we are at last agreed. I repeat, that
+sort of petty morality won't answer at the present day; sooner or later
+you will see that for yourself."
+
+"With the half of all he possesses!" murmured Gustave, following the
+speaker. "That is bad, very bad! Here we must go to work with the
+greatest caution!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+When the brothers entered the drawing-room they found it deserted, but
+Frida stood outside on the terrace. She could not have heard them
+approach, for as Sandow passed out at the French window she turned
+hastily round, and the traces of tears were clearly seen. She rapidly
+passed her handkerchief over her face, but it was impossible to conceal
+her emotion. It was not usual with the merchant to display much
+consideration for the feelings of others, but here he could easily
+connect the girl's distress with the painful conversation at the
+dinner-table, and in a sudden accession of sympathy he tried to help
+her through her trouble.
+
+"You need not be so anxious to hide your tears, Miss Palm," said he.
+"Here in a strange country you feel home-sick, I am sure."
+
+He seemed to have touched the right chord, for in the trembling tone
+with which Frida replied lay the plainest proof of its truth.
+
+"Yes, an inexpressible home-sickness!"
+
+"Naturally, you have been such a short time here," said Sandow,
+carelessly. "All Germans feel that at first, but it soon passes away.
+If one is lucky in the New World one is glad to forget old times, and
+in the end rejoices at having turned one's back on them. Do not look so
+shocked, as if I had said something monstrous. I speak from my own
+experience."
+
+Frida certainly had looked shocked. Her eyes, yet moist with tears,
+shot forth a glance of scorn and dislike as she hastily cried--
+
+"You cannot be serious, Mr. Sandow. I shall forget, give up my country,
+even the recollection of it? Never, never!"
+
+Sandow looked rather surprised at this passionate protest from the
+quiet girl; round his lips played a half contemptuous, half pitiful
+smile as he replied--
+
+"I reckon you well disposed to learn that. The misfortune of most
+Germans here is that they hold so fast to the past, that the present
+and future are allowed to glide away unnoticed. Home-sickness is one of
+those sickly, affected sentiments which are sometimes considered as
+poetic and interesting, while in real life they are only hindrances.
+Whoever will get on here must keep his head clear and his eyes open, in
+order to seize and profit by every chance. You are compelled by
+circumstances to seek for a living here, and this weak longing and
+dreaming will not help you in that."
+
+Hard and heartless though these words might sound, they were spoken
+with perfect sincerity. The unfortunate remark about his business
+friend, which might have been expected to irritate and embitter the
+merchant, seemed, on the contrary, to have awakened an interest in the
+girl, whom till then he had scarcely observed.
+
+Frida gave no spoken contradiction to the lesson he condescended to
+give her, and which chilled her inmost heart. But her questioning,
+reproachful look said enough, and these serious, dark eyes seemed to
+produce an extraordinary effect on the usually unimpressionable man.
+This time he did not avoid the look, but bore it unflinchingly.
+Suddenly his voice took involuntarily a milder tone, and he said--
+
+"You are still young, Miss Palm, very young, far too young to wander
+about the world alone. Was there, then, no one in your native land who
+could offer you a shelter?"
+
+"No, no one!" came almost inaudibly from the lips of the girl.
+
+"Of course--you are an orphan. I heard that from my niece. And the
+relation who invited you to New York died while you were on your way
+there?"
+
+The slight inclination of the head which Frida made might be
+interpreted in the affirmative, but a burning blush overspread her
+face, and her eyes sought the ground.
+
+"That is really very sad. How was it possible to find a proper refuge
+in New York, where you were quite a stranger?"
+
+The flush on the girl's cheeks became still deeper.
+
+"My fellow-travellers took charge of me," she answered hesitatingly.
+"They took me to a countryman, the pastor of a German church, where I
+was most kindly received."
+
+"And this gentleman recommended you to my niece. I know her mother had
+numerous connections in New York, with some of whom Jessie keeps up a
+correspondence. She feels such warm sympathy for you, that you need
+have no anxiety for the future. With the recommendation of Miss
+Clifford, it will not be difficult to find a suitable place."
+
+Frida appeared as unpractised in falsehood as Jessie. With the latter
+she had not been obliged to use the deception which was necessary in
+speaking to the master of the house. Jessie had from the first been
+acquainted with circumstances which must be carefully concealed from
+Sandow, even now when he began to display some interest in her. But the
+manner of the girl showed how hard her part was. Sandow knew her shy
+and taciturn, but this obstinate silence appeared to annoy him.
+
+As he received no reply, he turned abruptly away, and went into the
+garden. Frida drew a long breath, as if released from some burden, and
+returned to the drawing-room. Here she was met by Gustave, who, though
+remaining in the background, and apparently quite indifferent to the
+conversation, had, in reality, not lost a word of it.
+
+"Listen to me, Frida, I am not at all satisfied with you," he began in
+a tone of reproof. "What was the object of your coming here? What do
+you mean by avoiding my brother at every opportunity, actually running
+away from him? You make no attempt at a nearer acquaintance; the rare
+moments when he is approachable are allowed to pass unused by, and you
+maintain complete silence when he speaks to you. I have smoothed the
+way for you, and now you must try to walk in it alone."
+
+ Frida had listened to this lecture in silence; but now she drew
+herself up and said hastily--
+
+"I cannot!"
+
+"What can you not do?"
+
+"Keep the promise which I made to you. You know you half forced it from
+me. Against my will am I here, against my will have I undertaken to
+play the part to which you have condemned me. But I cannot carry it
+through, it is beyond my strength. Let me go home again, here I can do
+no good."
+
+"Indeed?" cried Gustave angrily. "That is a brilliant idea. For this
+have I crossed the sea with you, and made deadly enemies of my
+publisher and the editor, who were determined not to let me go. For
+this I sit patiently at the office desk under the weight of Miss
+Clifford's supreme contempt, and all that Miss Frida may declare, once
+for all, 'I will stay no longer.' But it won't do. Surely you are not
+going to cast away your arms after the struggle of one week. On the
+contrary, I must request that you will stay and carry out what we have
+begun."
+
+The girl's dark eyes rested sadly and earnestly on the speaker, as if
+reproving his careless tone.
+
+"Do not call me ungrateful! I know what I owe you, what you have done
+for me; but the task is harder than I had thought. I can feel no
+affection for this cold, hard man, and he will never feel any for me,
+of that I have the strongest conviction. Had I once seen a kindly
+glance in his eyes, once heard a cordial word from his lips, I might
+have drawn nearer to him; but this frigid character, that nothing can
+warm, nothing can break through, drives me ever farther and farther
+away."
+
+Instead of replying, Gustave took her hand, and drew her beside him on
+the sofa.
+
+"Have I ever said that the task would be easy?" he asked. "It is hard
+enough, harder than I could have believed, but not impossible. With
+this shy avoidance of him, you will certainly attain nothing. You must
+grapple with the foe; he is so strongly mailed that he can only be
+taken by storm."
+
+"I cannot!" cried Frida passionately. "I tell you that no voice within
+me speaks for him, and if I can neither give nor receive love, what
+shall I do here? Steal my way into a home and fortune. You cannot wish
+that, and if you did, I would refuse both, were they offered to me with
+the heartless indifference with which he permitted me a refuge in his
+house."
+
+With the last words she sprang from her seat. Gustave quietly drew her
+down again.
+
+"Now you are getting beyond all bounds, and the end will be an
+obstinate refusal. If I did not know from whom you take that wilful
+obstinacy, that passionate temper which lies under all your outward
+reserve, I would give you another sort of lecture. But these faults are
+hereditary, it is no use fighting against them."
+
+The girl seized his hand and held it in both her own, as she
+entreated--
+
+"Let me away, let me go home again, I beg, I beg! What does it matter
+if I am poor. I can work. I am young, and you will not desert me.
+Thousands are in the same position, and must struggle with life
+themselves. I will rather a thousand times do that than beg for a
+recognition which is withheld from me. I only followed your wishes,
+when you brought me to your brother; I need neither him nor his
+riches."
+
+"But he needs you," said Gustave impressively. "And he needs your love
+more than you believe."
+
+The girl's lips trembled with a bitter smile.
+
+"There you are certainly wrong! I know little of the world or of men;
+but I know very well that Mr. Sandow neither needs nor wishes for love.
+He loves nothing in the world, not Jessie, who has grown up under his
+eyes almost like a daughter of his own; not you, his own brother. I
+have seen only too plainly how far he is from you both. He knows
+nothing but the desire for wealth, for gain, and yet he is rich enough.
+Is it true, really true, that he is connected with this Jenkins, that
+such a man belongs to his friends?"
+
+"Child, you understand nothing about that," said Gustave, evasively.
+"Whoever, like my brother, has seen all the hopes of his life
+shattered, whose every blessing has become a curse, every pleasure a
+disappointment, either sinks utterly under such a catastrophe, or he
+leaves his former self entirely behind, and goes on his way another
+man. I know what he was twelve years ago, and what was then living in
+him cannot be quite dead. You shall awaken it, you shall at all events
+try, and that is why I have brought you here."
+
+The deep earnestness with which these words were spoken, did not fail
+of their effect on Frida; but she said, with a shake of the head--
+
+"I am, and must remain a stranger to him. You have yourself forbidden
+me to let him suspect anything of our circumstances."
+
+"Certainly I have, for if he now discovered the truth he would most
+likely repulse you with the utmost harshness; your obstinacy is equal
+to his, and thus all would be lost. But at least you must approach him.
+As yet you have scarcely spoken together. No voice rises in your heart,
+you say. But it must rise in you, in him, and it will rise when you
+have learnt to stand face to face together."
+
+"I will try!" said Frida, with a deep sigh. "But if I fail, if I only
+meet with harshness and suspicion"--
+
+"You must remember that he is a man much sinned against," interrupted
+Gustave, "so much, that he has a right to look with mistrust and
+suspicion on all, and to draw back where another would lovingly open
+wide his arms. You are innocent, you suffer for the faults of others;
+but all the weight, poor child, falls on you."
+
+The girl made no reply, but two hot tears rolled down her cheeks, while
+she rested her head on the speaker's shoulder. He stroked her forehead
+softly and soothingly.
+
+"Poor child! Yes, it is hard, at your age, when all should be joy and
+sunshine, to be already so deeply plunged in hatred and disunion, in
+the whole misery of human life. It has been hard enough to me to reveal
+all this to you; but it entered with such force into your life that it
+was imperative for you to know it. And my Frida does not belong to the
+weak and vacillating, she has something of the energy, and, alas,
+something of the hardness of a certain other nature. So bravely
+forwards, we must conquer in the end!"
+
+Frida dried her tears and forced a smile.
+
+"You are right! I am so ungrateful and stubborn towards you, who have
+done so much for me! You are"--
+
+"The best and noblest of men"--interrupted Gustave, "naturally I am,
+and it is very extraordinary that Miss Clifford will not recognise my
+perfections, though you have so touchingly assured her of them. But now
+go out in the air for a few minutes. You look flushed and tearful, and
+you must do away with these signs of excitement. Meanwhile, I will wait
+here for Jessie. We have not had one dispute to-day, and a wrangle has
+become one of the necessities of life to me, which I cannot do
+without."
+
+Frida obeyed. She left the drawing-room, crossed the terrace, and
+descended into the garden. Slowly she walked through the beautiful
+park-like grounds, which stretched down to the shore, and on which the
+whole skill of the landscape gardener had been spent; but the spot she
+sought, lay in the most distant part of the garden. It was a simple
+bench, shaded by two mighty trees; it afforded an unlimited view over
+the sea, and from the first day, had become the favourite retreat of
+the young stranger. The fresh sea wind cooled Frida's heated cheeks,
+and swept the traces of tears from her face, but the shade on her brow
+defied all its efforts. This shade grew only darker and deeper, while
+she, lost in distant dreams, watched the play of the waves which broke
+upon the beach.
+
+The garden was not so deserted as it seemed, for at no great distance
+voices might be heard. Just by the iron railing which enclosed the
+domain of the villa, stood Sandow with the gardener, and inspected the
+addition, which in the last few days, had been made to the grounds.
+
+The gardener directed, with ill-concealed pride, his attention to the
+work, which was really planned and carried out with great taste and
+skill, but the master of the house did not display much interest in it.
+He cast a careless glance over it, with a few cool words expressed his
+satisfaction, and went again on his way towards the house. Thus he
+passed the bench where Frida sat.
+
+"Is that you, Miss Palm? You have chosen the most retired spot in the
+whole garden for your retreat."
+
+"But also the most beautiful! The view of the sea is so magnificent?"
+
+"That is a matter of taste," said Sandow. "For me that eternal rolling
+up and down has a deadly monotony. I could not long endure it."
+
+He said this in passing, and was on the point of leaving her. She would
+probably have left his remark unanswered, and the conversation would
+have ended there, but Gustave's warning bore fruit. She did not
+preserve that shy silence as usual, but replied in a tone of which the
+deep emotion forced a recognition.
+
+"I love the sea so dearly--and--even if you ridicule me, Mr. Sandow,--I
+cannot forget that my home lies there, beyond those waves."
+
+Sandow did not appear disposed for ridicule. He stood still, his eyes
+followed involuntarily the direction she pointed out, and then rested
+earnestly and musingly on Frida's face, as if he sought something
+there.
+
+It was a misty and rather gloomy afternoon. The clouds hung heavy with
+rain over the scene, and the usually unbounded view over the sunny blue
+waves, was to-day, confined and veiled. One could scarcely see a
+hundred steps away; farther out lay thick fog on the sea, and the
+restlessly moving flood enlightened by no ray of sunshine, showed a
+dark grey tint, which gave it an almost oppressive air of gloom.
+
+Restlessly rolled on the waves, and burst with a hiss into white foam
+on the sand of the shore. Far out in the fog sounded the roaring of the
+distant ocean, and two gulls took their slow flight over the waves and
+vanished in the mist. Frida's eyes followed them dreamily, and she
+started violently when Sandow, who till now had preserved silence,
+suddenly asked--
+
+"What was the name of the clergyman with whom you lived in New York?"
+
+"Pastor Hagen."
+
+"And there you heard those remarks about Jenkins and Co.?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Sandow."
+
+Frida seemed about to add something, but the abruptness with which the
+last question was uttered closed her lips.
+
+"I might have supposed so. These clerical gentlemen with their
+extravagant views of morality, are always ready with a sentence of
+damnation, when a thing does not exactly fit their measure. From the
+pulpit it is much easier to look down on a sinful world, than it is to
+us who must live and struggle in the midst of it. These gentlemen
+should for a moment try what it is, they would soon lose some of their
+virtuous calm and Christian spotlessness, but they would learn to judge
+better of other things of which now they understand absolutely
+nothing."
+
+The bitter sarcasm of these last words would perhaps have terrified
+another, but Frida's spirit rose energetically against it.
+
+"Pastor Hagen is mildness and consideration itself," with a blaze of
+indignation. "Certainly he will never condemn anyone unjustly. It was
+the first and only time that I heard a harsh judgment from his lips,
+and I know that only care for the dangerous position of his countrymen
+drew it from him."
+
+"Does that perhaps mean that he is right?" asked Sandow sharply, while
+almost threateningly he advanced a step nearer.
+
+"I do not know. I am quite strange and unknown to all. But you, Mr.
+Sandow, are acquainted with this man, you must know"--
+
+She dared not complete the sentence, for she felt that every additional
+word might be an insult, and so indeed Sandow seemed to take it. The
+milder tone in which he had begun the conversation, disappeared in the
+wonted cold severity as he returned--
+
+"At all events, I am much surprised to hear how the name and reputation
+of a great firm can be slandered in certain circles. You are still
+almost a child, Miss Palm, and it is easy to imagine, but understand
+nothing of, such things. You cannot know how influential the name of
+Jenkins and Co. is in the commercial world. But those who allow
+themselves such freedom in their slander should consider that and
+beware."
+
+This refutation sounded dry enough, but not convincing. Of the power
+and influence of the man no one had doubted, only that his influence
+was injurious. Frida of course had no idea of the nature of the
+connection between the two houses, but even the mention of the two
+names together had deeply shocked her.
+
+"You are angry with me for my imprudent expressions about your friend,"
+she said. "I repeated unsuspectingly what I had heard, and Pastor
+Hagen's remarks only referred to the danger with which such
+undertakings threaten our emigrants. He has daily in New York before
+his eyes the proof of how deeply such things affect the weal or woe of
+thousands. You cannot know that the interests of your banking-house lie
+certainly far removed from such speculations."
+
+"Now how is it that you are so sure of it?" asked Sandow jestingly, but
+the jest seemed somewhat forced. The dialogue began to disturb him, yet
+he made no effort to break it off; there was something in it which
+charmed and enchained him against his will.
+
+Frida emerged more and more from her reserve. The subject interested
+her in the highest degree, and her voice trembled with deep emotion as
+she replied--
+
+"I have once, only once, seen such a picture of misery, but it has made
+an indelible impression on me. While I was in New York, a number of
+emigrants came to us, Germans, who some years ago had gone to the Far
+West, and were now returning. They had, doubtless, listened too readily
+to the representations of the unscrupulous agents, and had lost
+everything in those pathless woods. There they had left, sacrificed to
+the climate, many of their nearest and dearest; there they had left
+their means, their hopes, their courage--all! The German pastor who had
+warned them before and whom they had not credited, must now advise them
+and procure them the means of returning to their native land. It was
+terrible to see these, once so courageous and strong, now so utterly
+broken down and despairing, and to hear their lamentations. I shall
+never forget it!"
+
+As if overpowered by the recollection, she laid her hand upon her eyes.
+Sandow replied not one word. He had turned away and looked grave and
+motionless out into the mist. Immovable, as if chained to the spot, he
+listened to every word which came with ever-increasing passion and
+excitement from the youthful lips.
+
+"I saw myself, on board the steamer which brought also hundreds of
+emigrants here, how much anxiety and care such a ship carries, how many
+hopes and fears. Happiness is seldom the cause which forces them to
+leave their home. With so many it is the last hope, the last attempt to
+create a new home for themselves out here. And then to think that all
+their hopes fail, all their toil and labour is lost, that they must be
+ruined because one man will enrich himself, because there are men who,
+on purpose, with the fullest knowledge send their brothers into misery,
+to make a gain out of their destruction. I should never have believed
+it possible had I not myself seen it and heard it from those who
+returned!"
+
+She stopped, started at the deadly pallor which overspread the face of
+the man who still stood motionless before her. His features remained
+firm and inflexible as ever, no feeling betrayed itself there, but
+every drop of blood seemed to have forsaken those features, whose fixed
+expression had something unearthly in it. He did not see the anxious
+questioning look of the girl, her sudden silence seemed first to
+restore him to consciousness. With an abrupt movement he drew himself
+up, and passed his hand over his brow.
+
+"One must acknowledge that you stand bravely by your countrymen," said
+he. His voice sounded dull and heavy, as if every word were produced by
+a strong effort.
+
+"So would you if you had an opportunity for doing so," returned Frida,
+with perfect assurance. "You would cast the whole weight of your name
+and position into the scale against such undertakings, and certainly
+you could do far more than an unknown clergyman, whose own duties leave
+him so little time, and who has already so much distress and misery to
+alleviate in his own parish. Mr. Sandow," with suddenly awakening
+confidence, she drew a step nearer to him, "really I did not mean to
+affront you by those heedless words. It is quite possible that report
+has wronged the man, or that Pastor Hagen has been deceived. You do not
+believe it, I can see from your emotion, and you must know him best?"
+
+He was certainly agitated, this man whose hand so convulsively grasped
+the back of the bench, as if he would crush the carved wood with his
+fingers, so agitated that some moments passed before he regained full
+control over his voice.
+
+"We have fallen upon a very disagreeable topic," said he at last
+turning away. "I should never have believed that the timid, quiet
+child, who during the week spent in my house, scarcely dared to raise
+her eyes or open her lips, would blaze out so passionately when
+strangers' interests were concerned. Why have you never shown this side
+before?"
+
+"I dared not. I feared so much"--
+
+Frida said no more, but her eyes which were raised half confidently,
+half timidly to his, expressed what the lips could not, and she was
+understood.
+
+"Whom did you fear? Was it me?"
+
+"Yes," she replied with a deep breath. "I feared you dreadfully till
+this moment."
+
+"But you should not fear me, child!" In Sandow's voice was a tone
+silent for many years and grown quite strange, but which spoke of
+rising warmth and softness. "No doubt I seem cold and stern to you, and
+so I am in the business world, but towards the young guest who has
+sought shelter in my house I would not be so. Do not for the future
+avoid me as you have done. You must not be afraid of me?"
+
+He stretched his hand out to her, but Frida hesitated to take it. She
+became alternately red and pale, some stormy, hardly repressed feeling
+seemed bursting from her control. Suddenly Jessie's voice was heard
+from the terrace. Growing anxious at the long absence of the young
+visitor she called her name. Frida sprang up.
+
+"Miss Clifford calls me, I must go to her. Thank you, Mr. Sandow, I
+will not be afraid of you again?"
+
+And hastily, before he could prevent her, she pressed her lips to the
+offered hand, and fled away through the shrubbery.
+
+With great astonishment Sandow looked after her. A singular girl! What
+did it mean, this strange mixture of shyness and confidence, of blazing
+passion and such power of self-repression? It was a riddle to him, but
+just with this unexpected, contradictory character, Frida succeeded in
+what the cleverest calculations could not have done--in awaking a deep
+and abiding interest in the heart of a man generally so cold and
+indifferent.
+
+He had indeed every reason to be irritated and annoyed "with the
+fanciful girl, with her exaggerated ideas," but through his irritation
+another feeling forced its way, the same which he experienced when he
+first looked into these dark childish eyes, and of which he could
+scarcely say whether it caused him pain or pleasure.
+
+He forgot, perhaps, for the first time in his life, that his study, and
+his writing table laden with important letters awaited him. Slowly he
+sank on to the bench and gazed at the restless rolling sea.
+
+"A deadly monotony" he had said, of this eternal motion. The taste for
+the beauties of nature had long ago died out in him, like so many other
+tastes, but the words of the just concluded conversation still rang in
+his ears. Truly; on the other side of this heaving ocean lay his native
+land, his home. Sandow had not thought of it for years. What was home
+to him? He had been long estranged from it, he clung with all the roots
+of his present life to the land he could thank for what he was. The
+past lay as far distant from him as the unseen coast of home, yonder in
+the mist.
+
+The proud rich merchant, whose name was known in every quarter of the
+globe, who was accustomed to reckon with hundreds of thousands,
+certainly looked back with contemptuous pity on the past, on the narrow
+life of a subordinate official in a provincial German town. How close
+and confined was then the horizon of his life, how wearily must he then
+struggle to make both ends of his paltry salary meet, till at last,
+after long hoping and waiting, he reached a position which allowed him
+to establish his modest household. And yet how that poor narrow life
+had been beautified and ennobled by the sunshine of love and happiness
+which was shed around it.
+
+A young and beautiful wife, a blooming child, the present full of
+sunshine, the future full of joyful hopes and dreams, he needed nothing
+more, his whole life was overflowing with happiness, but what a fearful
+end to all that joy!
+
+An old friend of Sandow's, who had grown up with him, who had shared
+his boyish amusements, and later had accompanied him to the university,
+returned, after a long absence, to his native town. He was well-off and
+independent, and his life was dimmed by no cares for the morrow, unlike
+his friend; who, however, received him with open arms and led him to
+his home. And then began one of those domestic tragedies which are
+often concealed for years, till at last some catastrophe brings them to
+light.
+
+The blinded man suspected not that his wife's heart was estranged from
+him, that treachery spun its webs around him under his own roof. His
+love, his confidence, firm as if founded on a rock, helped to blind
+him, and when his eyes were at last opened, it was too late, he saw his
+happiness and honour lying in ruin before him. Almost driven mad by
+despair, he lost self-control and struck the destroyer of his happiness
+to the ground.
+
+Fate had at least preserved him from that last misery,
+blood-guiltiness. Although severely injured, the traitor recovered
+slowly, but Sandow had to pay the penalty of his deed by an
+imprisonment of many a weary year. Though Right was unquestionably on
+his side, the letter of the law sentenced him, and that sentence
+destroyed his whole existence.
+
+His situation was naturally lost, his official career closed. She, who
+had once been his wife, had after the necessary separation had taken
+place, given her hand to the man for whose sake she had betrayed her
+husband, and whose name she now bore. And the one thing left to him,
+the one thing the law allowed to the desolate man, that he himself put
+from him. He had learnt to doubt all, all that he had once considered
+pure and true, he now looked on as lying deception; thus he believed no
+more in his paternal rights, and refused to recognise the little being
+which had once been the joy of his heart.
+
+He left it to the mother without even seeing it again. Under these
+circumstances it was impossible to contemplate returning to his native
+town.
+
+Only America was open to him, that refuge of so many shattered
+existences. Despairing of himself and of the world, poor and with the
+prison stain upon his brow, he went there, but it was the turning point
+in his life. There he rose from deepest misery to riches and splendour.
+
+From that time success had remained true to Frank Sandow. Whatever he
+ventured brought the richest returns, and soon he found only too much
+pleasure in these ventures. He dragged the quiet and timorous Clifford
+with him into the boldest and fool-hardiest speculations, and, as since
+his death, the reins had been entirely in his own hands, he could now
+brook no control.
+
+There was something almost terrible in this restless, unceasing, hunt
+for gain in a man, who heaped up riches, but had no one for whom to
+gather them. But man must have something to cling to, something to give
+an aim and object to his life, and when the nobler good is lost, it is
+often the demon of gold which makes itself lord of the empty shrine.
+
+Thus Sandow had fallen a victim. This demon spurred him ever forwards
+to new gains, drove him from one wild speculation to another, and led
+him to place his all on a single card. But it made him also insensible
+of every joy of life, to peace or happiness.
+
+The chief of the great American banking house had indeed won for
+himself an imposing position, but his countenance showed only furrows
+of care, only the traces of feverish excitement; of peace and happiness
+there was no sign there.
+
+The mist over the sea had grown thicker and spread farther and farther.
+Like dusky visions it floated to the land, and out of it rolled and
+burst the gloomy billows. The wind which now arose in its full might,
+drove them more strongly and violently on the strand. They came no more
+with a light splash, but roared and foamed on the beach. Threateningly
+they rushed to the feet of the lonely man, who darkly, and as if lost
+in thought, looked down on them. It was as if every wave repeated the
+words he had just heard, and that out of the fog arose the pictures
+they had called up before him.
+
+Singular! What Gustave's energetic representations could not produce,
+this childish chatter had succeeded in doing. The earnest warnings of
+his brother had brought no effect on the merchant, he cast them off
+contemptuously as "sentimental notions," as the "ideas of a novice,"
+and finally silenced him with a threat.
+
+He had long been unaccustomed to take the weal and woe of others into
+consideration in his calculations. "One must reckon with men as with
+figures!" That was the principle of his life, and the foundation of his
+riches. Even in this speculation which had been proposed to him by his
+correspondent, he had reckoned with them, and it had not once occurred
+to him that men's lives should be thought of too. And now an
+inexperienced child, who had no idea of the effect her words could
+produce, had dared to speak thus to him. The words worked and fermented
+in him, he could not tear the thoughts from him.
+
+"How much care and anxiety such a ship bears, how many hopes and
+fears!" Sandow had experienced that too, he too had landed here with
+his shattered hopes, with the last despairing attempt to begin a new
+life here. Success had come to him, friends and relations had held out
+a helping hand to him. Without that, he also might have succumbed.
+
+But still came hundreds of ships, and the thousands that they carried
+had made also their last venture, gazed also fearfully around for any
+helping hand which might be stretched out to them. There was still room
+for many here, and the New World might look more benevolently on them
+than the Old.
+
+But, whoever seized the hand which Jenkins and Co. stretched out to
+them, went to their ruin. And there was room for so many in that
+district, where famine and fever awaited them. They had bought that
+enormous territory for a song, and must at any price people it, to
+pocket the hoped-for enormous gain. There were really men who sent
+their brothers to destruction to enrich themselves.
+
+Sandow sprang suddenly up. He would tear himself from these thoughts,
+which seemed burnt into his memory, from these words, which haunted him
+like spectres. He could endure the monotonous roar of the sea no
+longer, and the mist lay like a heavy weight upon his breast. It
+literally hunted him from the place and into the house. But it was in
+vain that he locked himself into his room, that he buried himself in
+letters and despatches. Outside the sea roared and rolled, and
+something within him arose and struggled upwards--upwards--something
+which had lain asleep for years, and at last awoke--his conscience!
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+Jessie sat in the garden and drew, and opposite to her in the arbour
+sat Gustave Sandow. He had just returned from town, where he had
+occupied himself about everything imaginable, except, alas! the one
+thing which was expected from the future head of the house of Clifford.
+He had not even set his foot within the counting-house. For there were
+so many other things to attend to. First he had visited a rich banker
+in the town, who had just received from Europe a costly painting on
+which he wished Gustave's opinion. As both owner and critic were alike
+eager on the subject, the inspection extended itself over the whole,
+tolerably valuable picture gallery of the banker, and occupied several
+hours.
+
+After that, both gentlemen drove to a great meeting on some town
+interests, and at which Mr. Sandow, jun., was an eager and interested
+listener.
+
+In conclusion, he had a small private meeting which some gentlemen of
+the press had called together in honour of their former colleague. The
+state of affairs in Germany and America was here thoroughly examined,
+and meanwhile it had become so late, that Gustave considered it quite
+unnecessary to visit his brother's office. He preferred driving direct
+to the villa to keep the ladies company.
+
+After such a thoroughly satisfactory day's work, he thought himself
+justified in satisfying the craving of his heart, which could only
+happen when he, at least once a day, had a wrangle with Miss Clifford.
+With this intention he rapidly sought and found her.
+
+During the last few weeks a noticeable change had taken place in
+Jessie. Some secret trouble, which she did not perhaps acknowledge to
+herself, cast a shade over the lovely face, which looked paler and more
+serious than before, and round the mouth, too, lay a half bitter, half
+painful line which was formerly not there. The presence of Gustave was
+clearly not likely to cheer her, for she avoided looking at him, and
+earnestly continued her drawing, while, to all his remarks, she
+returned only short and unconnected replies.
+
+But it was not so easy to frighten Gustave away. When all his attempts
+at conversation failed he rose and bent over the half-finished drawing,
+which he examined with a critical eye.
+
+"A very pretty subject! It promises much, but you must entirely change
+the perspective, Miss Clifford, it is quite wrong."
+
+At last that produced the intended effect. Jessie raised her head, and
+looked indignantly at the uncalled adviser.
+
+"You don't draw yourself, Mr. Sandow, I believe?"
+
+"No, but I criticise."
+
+"So I see. Nevertheless you will permit me to retain my perspective as
+it is, until a real artist has convinced me of its errors."
+
+Gustave calmly took his seat again.
+
+"Just as you please! I propose that we should call in Frida as arbiter.
+She has remarkable talent for drawing, and it has been cultivated with
+the greatest care."
+
+"Frida?" repeated Jessie, letting her pencil rest, "I wanted to speak
+to you about her. She seems really to have nearly gained her end, for
+my guardian's interest in her increases day by day. For my part, this
+is rather perplexing, considering the indifference with which he
+treated her at first, but Frida must have found out how to get the
+right side of him, for suddenly he displayed so deep an interest in her
+as I had not conceived possible with his dry cold nature. Already he
+cannot bear to miss her. He shows unmistakable displeasure if the
+possibility of her departure is spoken of, and this morning, without
+the slightest remark on my side, he proposed to me that she should
+remain here permanently as my companion."
+
+"Did he really propose that?" cried Gustave eagerly. "That is more, far
+more, than I had yet dared to hope. Certainly we are not far from our
+goal!"
+
+"I think so too, and therefore it will soon be time to release the poor
+child from the painful and humiliating position in which she is. Here
+she is regarded as a total stranger, while she really stands in the
+closest connection with you; and is forced to keep up a constant
+succession of deceptions. I often see, at some harmless remark of my
+uncle's which she is obliged to avoid, how the blood flies to her
+cheeks, how the part she is forced to play embarrasses and distresses
+her. I fear she will not be able to endure it much longer."
+
+"She must!" declared Gustave. "I know that it is hard for her, and
+sometimes she tries to rebel, but I understand already how to manage
+her."
+
+Between Miss Clifford's delicate brows appeared a deep frown of
+displeasure.
+
+"I acknowledge, Mr. Sandow, that your tone and your whole manner of
+treating Frida are quite incomprehensible to me. You treat her
+completely as a child that must obey implicitly your higher will, and
+seem quite to forget that she must take a place at your side some day."
+
+"She must first be educated for it," said Gustave condescendingly. "At
+present she is scarcely sixteen, and I am thirty, therefore the child
+must look on me with respect."
+
+"So it seems! I should expect something more from my future husband,
+than that he should set himself up as an object of my respect."
+
+"Yes, Miss Clifford, that is quite different. No one would permit
+himself such a tone towards you."
+
+"I suppose my fortune gives me a claim to more consideration. With the
+poor dependent orphan, whom one elevates to one's own position, any
+manner is permitted."
+
+The remark sounded so bitter that Gustave noticed it, and cast a
+questioning glance at the young lady.
+
+"Do you think that Frida belongs to those natures which allow
+themselves to be thus elevated?"
+
+"No; I think her very proud, and far more courageous than is usual at
+her age. Just on that account is this unquestioning docility
+incomprehensible."
+
+"Yes. I am rather successful in training," acknowledged Gustave. "But
+as to your proposition, to tell the whole to my brother immediately,
+that is impossible. You don't know my brother; his obstinacy is by no
+means conquered, and would return doubly strong if he discovered our
+plot. The moment that he learnt that I had brought Frida here with a
+decided purpose, his anger would burst forth, and he would send us both
+back across the ocean."
+
+"That would indeed be a misfortune, for then the advantage of the whole
+intrigue would be lost."
+
+Jessie must indeed have been irritated before she allowed the hateful
+word "intrigue" to pass her lips, but it slipped out, and Gustave quite
+accepted it.
+
+"Quite right; that is what I fear, and it would never do to jeopardise
+it thus, now my heart is set on remaining here."
+
+There was a peculiar light in his eyes at the last words. Jessie did
+not see it; she had bent again over her drawing, and worked away with
+renewed zeal, but the pencil trembled in her hand, and the strokes
+became hasty and uncertain. Gustave watched her for a while; at last he
+rose again.
+
+"No, Miss Clifford, it really will not do to treat the perspective like
+that. Permit me one moment."
+
+And without further ceremony, he took the pencil from her hand, and
+began to alter the drawing. Jessie was about to make a violent protest,
+but she quickly saw that the pencil was in a very practised hand, and
+that a few powerful strokes entirely corrected the error.
+
+"You declared you could not draw," said she, wavering between anger and
+surprise.
+
+"Oh! It is only a little _dilletante_ performance, which I do not
+venture to call talent. Only enough to enable me to criticise. Here,
+Miss Clifford."
+
+He returned the leaf to her. Jessie looked silently at it and then at
+him.
+
+"I really admire your versatility, of which you have just given me a
+proof. You are everything imaginable, Mr. Sandow! Politician,
+journalist, artist.--"
+
+"And merchant," said Gustave, completing the sentence. "Yes, I am a
+sort of universal genius, but share alas, the fate of all geniuses; I
+am not recognised by my contemporaries."
+
+His half-ironical inclination showed that for the moment he looked upon
+her as representing his contemporaries. Jessie made no reply, but began
+to collect her drawing materials.
+
+"It is quite chilly. I ought to go in. Pray do not disturb yourself; I
+will send the servant to fetch my things," and declining with a motion
+of her hand any assistance from him, she took the drawing from the
+table, and left the summer-house.
+
+Gustave shook his head as he looked after her.
+
+"I seem really to have fallen into disgrace; the last few weeks she has
+been quite changed. I would rather hear the most violent attack on my
+selfishness and want of thought than this cool and measured bitterness.
+I fear it is high time for me to tell all the truth, and yet I dare not
+risk Frida's future by so doing. A premature catastrophe would spoil
+all."
+
+At that moment a carriage drove past the villa. It was Sandow returning
+from business. He came direct to the garden.
+
+"Here already!" was the short greeting he bestowed on his brother.
+"Where are the ladies?"
+
+"Miss Clifford has just left me."
+
+"And Miss Palm?"
+
+"I suppose she is on the beach. I have not seen her since my return."
+
+Sandow's eyes impatiently sought the farther part of the garden. He
+seemed disappointed that Frida had not come to meet him as usual.
+
+"I have not seen you since this morning," he remarked with temper. "You
+certainly asked leave on account of pressing business, still I expected
+to see you in the office later. What kind of business can you have
+which occupies a whole day?"
+
+"Well, first I was with Henderson, the banker."
+
+"Ah! About the new loan which is being raised in M----. I am glad that
+you have seen him yourself."
+
+"Naturally about the loan," said Gustave, who did not scruple to leave
+his brother in error about his business proceedings, though in his
+wanderings through the picture gallery there had been no mention of the
+projected loan. "And then there was some talk about private affairs.
+When Mrs. Henderson was last here she saw our young country woman, and
+is quite charmed with her. It is remarkable what an effect this still,
+timid child produces on every one. From their first meeting, Miss
+Clifford, too, became one of her warmest friends."
+
+"The child is not so quiet and shy as you imagine," said Sandow, whose
+eyes continued to look towards the shore. "Beneath that reserve is a
+deeply emotional, a quite uncommon nature. I never suspected it till
+accident revealed it to me."
+
+"And since then, you, too, belong to the conquered. Really, Frank, I
+scarcely know you again. You treat this young girl, this almost total
+stranger, with a consideration, one might almost say a tenderness, of
+which your only and highly deserving brother has never been able to
+boast."
+
+Sandow had seated himself, and thoughtfully supported his head on his
+hand.
+
+"There is something so fresh, so untouched, in such a young creature.
+Against one's will it recalls one's own youthful days. She still clings
+so fast to her enthusiastic ideas, to her dreams of happiness to come,
+and cannot understand that the outer world should look on things under
+such a different aspect. Foolish, childish ideas, which will fall away
+of themselves in the rough school of the world, but while one listens
+to them all one's lost beliefs by degrees revive again."
+
+Again his voice had that peculiar softened tone, which those even who
+best knew the merchant had never heard from his lips, and which seemed
+like an echo from some older, happier time. Frida must indeed have
+understood how to touch the right chord as no one before had done, for
+the very qualities, which in Jessie were regarded as sentimentality and
+exaggeration, had here found their way to the stern, cold heart of
+the man. Gustave felt this contradiction, and said, with a touch of
+satire--
+
+"But all that should not be new to you. You have lived all these years
+in Clifford's family, and Jessie has grown up under your eyes."
+
+"Jessie was always her parents' idolized darling," replied Sandow,
+coldly. "Love and happiness were literally showered upon her, and
+whoever did not treat her with flattery and tenderness, as myself for
+example, was feared and avoided by her. I have always been a stranger
+to this fair-haired, soft and petted child, and since she has been
+grown up, we have become still more distant. But this Frida with her
+wilful reserve, which we must overcome before reaching the real nature,
+has nothing weak and wavering about her. When once the somewhat
+forbidding crust has been broken through, strength and life are found
+beneath. I like such natures, perhaps because I feel something kindred
+in them, and sometimes I am surprised, almost startled, to hear from
+the lips of that girl, remarks and ideas almost identical with what
+were mine at the same age."
+
+Gustave made no reply, but he closely examined his brother's
+countenance. The latter felt this, and, as if ashamed of the warmer
+feeling he had allowed himself to display, immediately stopped, and
+resumed his usual cold business tone and manner.
+
+"You might at least have come to the office for a few hours. There are
+things of importance going on, and another letter from Jenkins has
+arrived. He presses for the fulfilment of your promise with regard to
+the _K--che Zeitung_, and it is certainly high time. You must have
+written your article long since."
+
+"I had not supposed there was any hurry," said Gustave. "For some weeks
+you have not even mentioned the subject."
+
+"There were so many preparations to make. I have kept up an active
+correspondence with New York on the subject."
+
+"Which you have not allowed me to see as you did the former letters."
+
+"Then it was necessary for you to learn all particulars. This time it
+concerned very unpleasant difficulties which I alone must arrange."
+
+"I know; you have tried to release yourself from the whole thing!"
+
+Sandow sprang up, and looked at his brother with the same air of
+speechless astonishment, as formerly when he heard of the journey to
+the much talked of possessions.
+
+"I! Who has betrayed that to you?"
+
+"No one, but many signs led me to suppose so, and now I see that I was
+not mistaken in my supposition."
+
+Sandow looked darkly and suspiciously at his brother, who stood before
+him with perfect composure.
+
+"You have really a dangerous power of observation! With you one must be
+perpetually under control, and even then is not safe in his inmost
+thoughts. Well yes, then, I did wish to withdraw. On closer examination
+the speculation did not seem so favourable, did not promise half the
+profit we had at first believed. I tried to release myself from the
+obligation, or to induce someone else to take my place, but have not
+been successful. Jenkins stands by the completion of our bargain, and I
+have now pledged myself completely. Nothing remains but to promptly
+carry out the first agreement."
+
+He brought out these disjointed remarks with nervous haste, and
+meanwhile played with his pocket-book which he had drawn out. His whole
+manner displayed a violent, hardly suppressed excitement. Gustave did
+not appear to notice it, but replied with calm decision--
+
+"Now there must be some means of freeing oneself from such a bargain."
+
+"No; for the sums which I have already sunk in this undertaking bind my
+hands. I stand the chance of losing all, if I withdraw now. Jenkins is
+just the man to hold me fast, and to use every letter of the contract
+against me, as soon as our interests cease to go hand in hand. So the
+thing must take its course.--Ah! Miss Frida, at last you allow us a
+glimpse of you."
+
+The last words, which sounded like a sigh of relief, were directed to
+the girl who now appeared in the arbour. During the last weeks Frida
+had also altered, but the change took a different form, than with
+Jessie. The childish face formerly so pale had now a rosy tinge, the
+dark eyes were still grave, but they had lost that troubled look. They
+sparkled with glad surprise when they beheld the master of the house,
+whom Frida immediately approached with frank confidingness.
+
+"Are you home already, Mr. Sandow? I did not know, or I should have
+come long ago, but"--she looked at the serious faces of the two men,
+and made a movement as if to leave them--"I am afraid I disturb you."
+
+"Not at all," said Sandow quickly. "We were only debating on some
+business matters, and I am glad to make an end of the discussion. Stay
+here!"
+
+He threw his pocket-book on the table and stretched out his hand. The
+cold, stern man, whose austere manner had never softened even in the
+family circle, seemed at this moment another being. The few weeks must
+have wrought a great change in him.
+
+Gustave greeted Frida in the polite but formal manner, which he always
+showed to her in the presence of his brother.
+
+"I have a message and an invitation for you, Miss Palm," said he. "Mrs.
+Henderson would like to see you soon, in order to talk farther with you
+over the arrangement which has been already mentioned."
+
+"What arrangement is that?" asked Sandow, becoming suddenly attentive.
+
+Frida cast a startled and questioning look at Gustave, and replied with
+some uncertainty--
+
+"Mrs. Henderson's companion is leaving, and the situation has been
+offered to me. I had better"--
+
+"You will not accept it," interrupted Sandow with decision. Vexation
+was audible in his voice. "Why this haste? There must be other and
+better places to be found."
+
+"The banker's family is one of the first in the town," remarked
+Gustave.
+
+"And Mrs. Henderson one of the most insupportable women, who torments
+her entire household with her nerves and whims, and her companion is a
+perfect victim to them. No, Miss Frida, give up the idea. I will on no
+account agree to your taking this situation."
+
+An almost imperceptible but triumphant smile played round Gustave's
+lips.
+
+Frida stood speechless, her eyes on the ground; all the old awkwardness
+seemed to have returned with these words.
+
+Sandow misunderstood her silence. He looked searchingly at her, and
+then continued more slowly--
+
+"Of course I do not wish to control your wishes. If you want to leave
+us"--
+
+"No! no!" cried Frida, so passionately that Gustave was obliged to make
+a warning sign to her, to remind her of the necessity of self-control.
+
+She quickly collected herself, and said with a trembling voice--
+
+"I am so much afraid of being tiresome to Miss Clifford."
+
+"That is a foolish idea," said Sandow reprovingly. "Tiresome to us! My
+niece will soon convince you of the contrary. She will make you a
+better offer than Mrs. Henderson's. Jessie is far too much alone, and
+needs a companion; it is not good for a young girl to be quite without
+one of her own sex. Will you be this companion, Frida? Will you stay
+altogether with us?"
+
+The girl raised her eyes to him; they were wet with tears, and there
+was something in them which looked like a prayer for forgiveness.
+
+"If you agree to it, Mr. Sandow, I will gratefully accept Miss
+Clifford's kindness, but only if you wish me to remain."
+
+Over Sandow's face flashed a smile, slight, but it brightened like a
+ray of sunshine the dark, stern features.
+
+"Am I, then, such a dreaded power in the house? Jessie has, then,
+already spoken of this project, and you feared my refusal. No, no,
+child! My niece is perfectly free to do as she pleases, and I will
+immediately talk the thing over with her, and settle it once for all.
+Mrs. Henderson shall learn to-morrow morning that she must look for
+another companion."
+
+He rose, and waving her a slight, but friendly greeting, left the
+arbour.
+
+Scarcely was he out of hearing when Gustave approached the girl.
+
+"He is afraid that the Hendersons will kidnap you from him, and hastens
+to make sure of you!" said he triumphantly. "Why do you look so
+terrified? Do you think I shall hand you over to Mrs. Henderson, who
+to-day certainly gave me the message to you, but who really deserves
+the character my brother has given her. I was obliged to learn how he
+would look on the idea of your leaving. He was quite beside himself
+about it. Bravo, child! You have managed your affairs capitally, and
+now, instead of the censure I first heaped upon you, must declare that
+I am thoroughly satisfied with you."
+
+Frida paid no attention to the eulogy. Her eyes followed Sandow, who
+was just disappearing behind the shrubbery. Now she turned and said--
+
+"I can deceive him no longer. As long as he was hard and cold I might
+have done it; now, the falsehood crushes me to the earth!"
+
+"Cast the whole responsibility on me," said Gustave encouragingly. "I
+have placed you in this position, have woven the 'intrigue,' as Miss
+Clifford so flatteringly expresses it; I will also bear the
+responsibility when the moment for explanation comes. But now the
+watchword is 'forward!' and we must not fail for a moment. When we are
+so near our aim, we must persevere. Think of that, and promise me that
+you will endure to the end."
+
+Frida drooped her head; she did not refuse, but neither did she give
+the required promise.
+
+Gustave continued in a serious tone--
+
+"Jessie, too, urges me to a declaration, and, I see, cannot comprehend
+my hesitation. She does not understand the circumstances, but believes
+that you are a stranger to her guardian, who has won his affection, and
+to whom he would gladly open his arms. But we"--here he seized Frida's
+hand, and grasped it firmly in his own--"we know better, my poor child!
+We know that you have to struggle with a gloomy hatred which has
+already poisoned his life, and has rooted itself so firmly in that life
+that a few kind words cannot banish it. I struggled for your rights
+when my brother left Europe, have tried again and again, and have thus
+learnt how deeply grafted in him is this miserable idea. You must
+become still more to him if it is entirely to be torn from him. Can you
+think that without the most urgent necessity I would lay such a yoke
+upon you?"
+
+"Oh, no, certainly not! I will obey you in everything, only it is so
+hard to lie."
+
+"Not to me!" declared Gustave. "I would never have believed that the
+Jesuitical principle, 'the end justifies the means,' could have been
+such a perfect antidote to all the pricks of conscience. I lie with a
+kind of peace of mind, or rather with a conscious sublimity. But you
+need not take a pattern by me. It is by no means necessary that a child
+like you should have attained such a height of objectivity. On the
+contrary, falsehood must and should be difficult to you, and it gives
+me the greatest satisfaction to know that such is the case."
+
+"But Jessie," said Frida, "may I not at least take her into our
+confidence? She has been so kind, so affectionate to me, a stranger,
+has opened her arms as if to a sister"--
+
+"To get rid of me!" interrupted Gustave. "Yes, that is why she received
+you with open arms. In order to escape my wooing she would have
+deceived the very old gentleman himself, if he would have delivered her
+from the unwelcome suitor. No, no, Jessie is out of the question. It is
+my special delight to be despised by her, and I must enjoy it a little
+while longer."
+
+"Because the whole thing is only play to you," said Frida
+reproachfully, "but she suffers from it."
+
+"Who? Jessie? Not at all. She is in the highest degree shocked at my
+wickedness, and I must give myself the one little satisfaction of
+leaving her still this sentiment."
+
+"You are mistaken; it gives her bitter pain to be obliged to judge you
+so. I know how she has wept over it."
+
+Gustave sprang up as if electrified.
+
+"Is that true? Have you really seen it? She has wept?"
+
+Frida looked with unmeasured surprise at his beaming face.
+
+"And you are glad of it. Can you really blame her if she has a mistaken
+opinion of you when you have caused that mistake? Can you be so
+revengeful as to torment her for it?"
+
+"Oh! the wisdom of sixteen years!" cried Gustave, bursting into
+irrepressible laughter. "You will defend your friend against me, will
+you?--against me? You are indeed very wise for your years, my little
+Frida, but of such things you understand nothing, and, indeed, it is
+not necessary. You can still wait a couple of years. But now tell me
+all about it! When did Jessie weep? What did she cry for? How do you
+know that the tears concerned me? Tell me, tell me, or I shall die of
+impatience!"
+
+His face indeed betrayed the highest excitement, and he seemed actually
+to devour the words from the girl's lips. Frida seemed certainly to
+know nothing of such things, for she looked astonished to the last
+degree, but yielded at last to his urgency.
+
+"Jessie asked me seriously a short time ago if I would really entrust
+my whole future to such an egoist as you. I defended you, awkwardly
+enough, as I dared not betray you, and was obliged to submit to all the
+reproaches heaped on you."
+
+"And then?" asked Gustave breathlessly, "and then?"
+
+"Then, in the midst of the conversation, Jessie suddenly burst into
+tears, and cried--'You are blind, Frida; you persist in your blindness,
+and yet I have only your happiness in view! You don't know what
+dreadful pain it gives me to have to place this man in such a light
+before you, or what I would give if he stood as pure and high in my
+eyes as in yours!' And then she rushed away and locked herself in her
+room. But I know that she cried for hours."
+
+"That is incomparable, heavenly news!" cried Gustave, in fullest
+delight. "Child, you do not know how cleverly you have observed. Come,
+I must give you a kiss for it!"
+
+And with that he seized the girl in his arms and kissed her heartily on
+both cheeks.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+A shadow fell on the entrance of the arbour--there stood Sandow, who
+had returned to fetch his forgotten pocket-book, and thus became a
+witness of the scene.
+
+For a moment he stood speechless and motionless, then he approached and
+cried, with the greatest indignation--
+
+"Gustave!--Miss Palm!"
+
+The girl started violently, even Gustave turned pale as he released
+her. The catastrophe which at any price he would yet delay, had burst,
+he saw that at a glance; now he must stand firm.
+
+"What is all this?" asked Sandow, measuring his brother with blazing
+eyes. "How dare you treat thus a young girl under the shelter of my
+house, and you, Miss Palm, how could you permit such conduct? It could
+not be agreeable to you? And yet there seems already a thorough
+understanding!"
+
+Frida made no attempt to reply to the bitter reproaches heaped upon
+her. She looked at Gustave as if she expected him to defend her. He had
+already collected himself, and said impressively to his brother--
+
+"Listen to me, you are in error, and I will explain all to you."
+
+"It needs no explanation," interrupted Sandow. "I have seen what you
+have been guilty of, and you will not try to deny the evidence of my
+own eyes. I always thought you frivolous, but not so dishonourable, but
+that you have, almost under the eyes of Jessie, your promised bride"--
+
+"Frank, stop there!" cried Gustave, with such determination that
+Sandow, although trembling with rage, was silent. "I cannot allow this,
+my self-sacrifice will not go so far as that. Frida, come to me. You
+see that we must speak. He must learn the truth."
+
+Frida obeyed. She came to his side, and he laid his arm protectingly
+round her. Sandow looked bewildered from one to the other. The affair
+was unintelligible to him, he had clearly no presentiment of the truth.
+
+"You wrong me by your accusations," said Gustave, "and you wrong Frida
+too. If I kissed her I had a right to do so. She has been my charge
+from her earliest youth. The poor forsaken child was neglected by
+everyone who ought to have protected and sheltered her. I was the only
+one who recognised the right of kindred. I have used that right, and
+can support my actions by it."
+
+It was astonishing how deeply earnest the voice of the irrepressible
+jester had become. At the first words a terrible presentiment seemed to
+seize Sandow. Every tinge of colour left his face, he became paler and
+paler, and with his eyes fixed on Frida, he repeated in a tuneless and
+mechanical voice--
+
+"Your right of kindred? What--what do you mean?"
+
+Gustave raised the head of the girl, which leant on his shoulder, and
+turned the face full towards his brother.
+
+"If you have not yet guessed, then read it in this face, perhaps it
+will now be clear to you. What likeness is it that you have remembered
+there. I have certainly deceived you, been forced to deceive you since
+you thrust every possibility of an understanding from you. Then I
+seized the only means, and brought Frida to you. I thought you would by
+degrees learn to comprehend the feeling which warmed your half-frozen
+heart, I thought it must at last dawn upon you, that the stranger who
+attracted you so powerfully had a right to your love. That is now
+impossible, the discovery has come too suddenly and unexpectedly, but
+look at those features, they are your own. For long years you have
+suffered under a dark and gloomy illusion, and have punished a
+guiltless child for the guilt of the mother. You awake at last and open
+your arms to her--to your own, your neglected child."
+
+A long oppressive silence followed these words. Sandow staggered, and
+for a moment it seemed as if he would give way altogether, but he stood
+upright. His face worked terribly, and his breast rose and fell quickly
+with the gasping breath, but he spoke no word.
+
+"Come, Frida!" said Gustave gently, "come to your father, you see he
+waits for you."
+
+He drew her forwards and would have led her to her father, but he had
+now regained his power of speech. He made a movement as if to thrust
+her from him, and hoarse and roughly cried--
+
+"Back! So easy a victory you need not expect. Now I see through the
+whole comedy."
+
+"Comedy!" repeated Gustave, deeply hurt. "Frank, in such a moment can
+you speak thus."
+
+"And what else is it?" broke out Sandow. "What else do you call that
+miserable jugglery which you have carried on behind by back? So, for
+weeks past I have been surrounded in my own house, with lies and
+deceit. And even Jessie has joined you; without her help it would have
+been impossible. All have conspired against me. You," he turned to
+Frida as if he would pour all his rage and scorn upon her devoted head,
+but he encountered the girl's eyes, and the words died on his lips.
+
+He was silent for some moments, and then continued with the bitterest
+contempt--
+
+"No doubt they described to you in very enticing colours the benefit of
+having a father from whom you might inherit wealth, and who could give
+you a brilliant position in life. That is why you have stolen into my
+house with lies. But what I swore when I left Europe that I stand by. I
+have no child, will have none, were the law ten times to adjudge me
+one. Go back over the sea to whence you came. I will not be the victim
+of deceit."
+
+"That is what I feared," said Gustave, half aloud. "Frida," he stepped
+quickly to her, "now you must rouse the feelings of a father. You see
+he will not listen to me; to you he must, and will listen. Speak, then,
+at all events open your lips, do you not feel what hangs on this
+moment?"
+
+But Frida spoke not, and did not open her lips, which were convulsively
+pressed together. She was deadly pale, and in her face was the same
+expression of hard, settled obstinacy which disfigured her father's
+countenance.
+
+"Let me alone, Uncle Gustave," she replied, "I cannot entreat now, and
+if my life depended on it, I could not. I will only tell my father I am
+innocent of the 'deceit' with which he reproaches me."
+
+The delicate form was suddenly drawn up to its full height, the dark
+eyes blazed, and the deeply injured feelings burst forth, passionately
+overflowing all bounds, like a stream which can no longer be
+controlled.
+
+"You need not repulse me so harshly, I should have gone in the moment
+when it became clear to me that the one thing I sought here--my
+father's heart--was denied me. I have never known a parent's love. My
+mother was estranged from me, of my father I only knew that he lived on
+this side the Atlantic, and had cast me off because he hated my mother.
+I came against my will, because I neither knew nor loved you. I only
+feared you. I came because my uncle said that you were lonely and
+embittered, and in spite of your wealth had no happiness in life; that
+you needed love, and that I alone could give it to you. By those means
+he forced me to follow him, in spite of my opposition, and by those
+means has he ever prevented me when I begged to return home. But now he
+will not wish to detain me, and if he did, I would tear myself away.
+Keep your wealth, father, that which you think has brought me to you.
+It has brought no blessing to you; I knew it long ago, and hear it
+again in your words. If you were poor and desolate I would try to love
+you, now I cannot. I will leave you within the hour!"
+
+The unmeasured violence with which these words were spoken, or rather
+with which they rushed from Frida's lips had something terrible in it,
+but it also betrayed something which produced a more powerful effect
+than all the prayers and petitions could have done--the resemblance
+between the father and the daughter.
+
+In the ordinary course of life the resemblance between the girl of
+sixteen and the already grey-haired man might have disappeared, or only
+have been remarkable occasionally; here, in the moment of highest
+excitement, it found such overwhelming, such convincing expression,
+that every doubt vanished on the spot.
+
+Sandow must have seen it whether he would or not. Those were his eyes,
+which flamed before him, that was his voice which rang in his ears,
+that was his own dark, unbending obstinacy which now turned against
+himself. Trait by trait he saw himself reproduced in his daughter. The
+voice of blood and nature spoke so loud and convincingly that even the
+long treasured illusion of the father began to yield.
+
+Frida turned to her uncle.
+
+"In an hour I shall be ready to start! Forgive me, Uncle Gustave, that
+I have so badly carried out all your teaching, that I have rendered
+useless all your self-sacrifice, but I cannot do otherwise!"
+
+She threw herself wildly on his breast, but only for a moment, then she
+tore herself away, fled past her father, and rushed like a hunted thing
+through the garden towards the house.
+
+As Sandow saw his daughter in his brother's arms, he made a movement as
+if to tear her away, but his hand fell powerless by his side, and he
+sank as if crushed upon a seat, and buried his face in his hands.
+
+Gustave, on his side, made no attempt to detain his niece. He stood
+quietly there with folded arms and watched his brother. At last he
+asked--
+
+"Do you believe it now?"
+
+Sandow raised himself; he tried to reply, but the words failed him, and
+no sound came from his lips.
+
+"I thought this encounter must have convinced you," continued Gustave.
+"The likeness is really startling. You are reflected in your child as
+in a mirror. Frank, if you do not believe this testimony I have indeed
+lost all hope."
+
+Sandow passed his hand over his brow, bedewed with cold sweat, and
+looked towards the house, where Frida had long since vanished.
+
+"Call her back!" said he, hoarsely.
+
+"That would be labour in vain, she would not listen to me. Would you
+return if you had been so driven away? Frida is her father's daughter,
+she will not approach you again--you must fetch her yourself."
+
+Again silence, but this only lasted for a minute, then Sandow rose,
+slowly and hesitatingly, but he rose. Gustave laid his hand upon his
+arm.
+
+"One word, Frank, before you go. Frida knows of the past only what she
+was compelled to know, not one syllable more. She does not dream _why_
+you have driven her away, nor what fearful suspicion has kept her all
+these years from her father's heart. I could not bring myself to reveal
+that to the child. She believes that you hated her mother because she
+was unhappy in her marriage with you, left you and married another man,
+and that this hatred has descended upon her. This reason satisfied her,
+she asked for no other, so let it remain. I think you will understand
+that I could not let your daughter look into the depth of your domestic
+misery, and concealed the worst from her. If you do not mention it she
+need never learn it."
+
+"I--thank you!"
+
+The elder brother seized the hand of the younger, the latter returned
+the pressure heartily and firmly. Then Sandow turned and went rapidly
+away.
+
+"He is going to her," said Gustave, with a sigh of relief. "God be
+thanked; now they can arrange the rest together."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+Frida had fled to her own room in the upper floor of the villa. Another
+might have given way to tears, or have poured out her heart to the
+sympathizing Jessie; this girl did neither; but with restless haste
+made the preparations for her journey.
+
+The harsh repulse of her father, which burnt like fire into her soul,
+left her only one thought. Away out of this house from which he wished
+to drive her, away as quick as possible.
+
+Frida had drawn out her travelling trunk, which still stood in the
+corner of the apartment, and collected her things together. She did it
+silently, tearlessly, but with a stormy haste, as if she would escape
+some misfortune. She knelt before the open box and was in the act of
+laying her dresses in it, when a step sounded outside. It must be her
+uncle who was looking for her, she knew that he would come to her, and
+would beg him to take her to an hotel. There they could arrange about
+her return home. She would be docile, obedient in everything, only he
+must not attempt to keep her longer here. The steps came nearer, the
+door opened, and on the threshold stood--her father!
+
+Frida trembled violently, the shawl which she held in her hand fell to
+the ground, and she stood as if rooted to the spot.
+
+Sandow entered and shut the door; he looked at the open box and the
+things scattered around.
+
+"You are going?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Question and answer were alike short and abrupt. It seemed as if the
+gulf between father and daughter would again open wide. Sandow was
+silent for a few moments, he visibly struggled with himself; at last he
+said--
+
+"Come to me, Frida!"
+
+She rose slowly, stood a moment as if undecided, and then approached
+slowly, till she stood close before her father. He put his arm round
+her, and with the other hand raised her head. Bending over her he
+examined line by line, feature by feature, and his eyes seemed
+literally to pierce into her countenance. The old suspicion arose once
+more, and for the last time, but it vanished by degrees, as the father
+saw his own features reproduced in his child.
+
+A deep, deep sigh burst from Sandow's breast, and the half anxiously
+seeking, half threatening look, melted into tears, which fell hot and
+heavy on Frida's brow.
+
+"Just now I gave you great pain," said he, "but do you think it was
+easy to me to drive from me the one thing that could give me joy.
+Gustave is right; it has been a terrible delusion, may it be forgotten
+for ever. My child," his voice broke in deepest emotion, "will you love
+your father?"
+
+A joyful cry burst from the daughter's lips. At this tone, the first
+which seemed really to come from the heart, vanished the bitterness of
+the last hour, vanished also the recollection of the long years of
+separation and estrangement.
+
+Frida threw both arms round her father's neck, and as he pressed her
+with a burst of tenderness to his breast, they both felt that the
+gloomy shadow which had so long separated them, had vanished for ever!
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+
+
+Meanwhile Gustave had also returned slowly to the house. As he entered
+the drawing-room, Jessie came to him full of uneasiness.
+
+"Mr. Sandow, pray, pray tell me what has happened. Ten minutes ago
+Frida rushed into my room, threw her arms round my neck, and wished me
+good-bye. She seemed quite beside herself, and declared that she must
+go, she could not stay another hour, would answer no questions, but
+referred me to you for all explanations. What has happened?"
+
+Gustave shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"What I feared, if the discovery could not be postponed. An accident
+betrayed our secret to my brother, and we were obliged to confess the
+truth. His auger at the deception burst forth with great violence, and
+was poured unsparingly upon us both. Frida could not support this, she
+declared she would go at once, and now is, most probably, making the
+necessary preparations for her journey."
+
+"And you are not with her!" cried Jessie. "You have not protected and
+supported her! Can you leave her alone at such a moment? Go to her!"
+
+"I should only be in the way," declared Gustave, with a composure which
+appeared to Miss Clifford as the height of selfishness. "What remains
+to be done Frida must fight out alone. I may, at last, be allowed to
+think of myself."
+
+His eyes, which rested on Jessie's face, beamed again as when Frida had
+made a certain revelation to him. Lost in this gaze, he quite forgot
+that his words must give rise to fresh misunderstanding, and this
+indeed happened in fullest measure.
+
+"All this while you have only thought too much of yourself!" replied
+Jessie, her excitement rising, "but if there is one spark of love in
+your breast, you must feel that your place is at the side of your
+betrothed bride."
+
+Gustave smiled, and stepped close to the indignant girl, while he said
+impressively--
+
+"Frida is not, and has never been, betrothed to me."
+
+"Not betrothed to you?"
+
+"No; if you remember, it was expressly as my _protégée_ I introduced
+her. It was you, Miss Clifford, who took the other connection for
+granted, and I left you in your error. But now, when I have ceased to
+play the part of protector, I may acknowledge to you that my
+inclinations were directed to quite another quarter."
+
+He bent over her hand, and pressed a passionate kiss upon it, which
+amply explained his words, but the game which he had so boldly carried
+on was now to be revenged on him. He had too long played the part of
+the heartless egoist, and must now do penance.
+
+Jessie snatched her hand away with the greatest indignation.
+
+"Mr. Sandow, you are going too far! So now, when my guardian repulses
+Frida, when you see the impossibility of gaining his consent, you dare
+to approach me! You even venture to deny your bride before me, and to
+give the whole thing out as a farce. That is really too much!"
+
+"But Miss Clifford--for heaven's sake!" cried Gustave, now seriously
+disturbed.
+
+She would not allow him to speak, but continued, as if beside herself--
+
+"I knew long ago, when you laid such stress upon the word _protégée_,
+that you were leaving a way of escape open. If Frida and fortune could
+both be won, well and good; if only fortune, Frida must go. There would
+still remain the heiress, who in the first place was intended for you,
+and this heiress you would secure while the forsaken, deceived girl was
+still under our roof. I have already experienced bitter disappointment
+with respect to your character, but such disgraceful disregard of truth
+and good faith I had not expected, even from you!"
+
+A flood of tears choked her voice. Gustave tried prayers, entreaties,
+explanations; all were in vain. She hurried into the adjoining room,
+and when he tried to follow her she drew the bolt inside. Directly
+after he heard her leave that room also by another door, so that his
+words could no longer reach her. Left thus in the lurch, Gustave began
+to give vent to his anger.
+
+"This is really too bad! This is what I have gained by sacrificing
+myself to the interests of others! My brother bursts upon me raging and
+storming because I give a caress to my own niece, and now I am treated
+like a criminal because I am too indifferent to her. Really, I ought to
+have taken Jessie into our confidence. This comes of too great a supply
+of high spirits. The thing amused me, and she--now she cries like one
+in the depths of despair. Now perhaps I may wait till tomorrow without
+her reappearing, and the misunderstanding should be brought to an end
+at once."
+
+Despairingly he stamped with his foot, when suddenly a voice behind him
+said--
+
+"I beg pardon--but I was directed here."
+
+Gustave started and looked round. At the principal entrance of the
+drawing-room stood a stranger, a little man with a round face, who,
+bowing politely, said--
+
+"Have I the honour of addressing the head of the house of Clifford?" He
+looked rather nervous, for Gustave's violent pantomime had not escaped
+him. "I have been to the office, and was there told that Mr. Sandow had
+already left. As my business is very urgent, I have been obliged to
+follow him out here."
+
+"My brother is not visible," said Gustave irritably, for this
+interruption was in the highest degree unwelcome at such a moment. "He
+has important business in hand, and cannot be disturbed."
+
+At the word "brother" the little gentleman bowed still more profoundly,
+and approaching with a confidential air, said--
+
+"Mr. Gustave Sandow! the great German journalist! I am deeply rejoiced
+that fortune has permitted me to make the acquaintance of such a
+celebrity, a celebrity whose value is thoroughly appreciated by our
+firm."
+
+"What do you want?" asked Gustave, with a look which clearly expressed
+a burning desire to show the admirer of his greatness to the door.
+
+"I am an agent of Jenkins and Co.," explained the stranger, with an air
+of great self-satisfaction. "I arrived here today with a number of
+emigrants, and found myself obliged to call upon our honoured
+correspondent here. Since Mr. Sandow cannot be disturbed, perhaps I may
+make my statement to you."
+
+Now Gustave's sorely tried patience was at an end. At a moment of such
+anxiety to receive an agent of Jenkins and Co. was beyond his power. He
+turned with great want of politeness to the bearer of the hated name--
+
+"I can receive no communications intended for my brother. Bring your
+news to-morrow to the counting-house. I would"--here he suddenly
+dropped the English in which he had spoken to the American, and
+relieved his mind with a few strong German curses. "I wish the devil
+would take Jenkins and Co. with all their agents to their accursed
+place in the West, that the consequences of their philanthropical
+speculation might fall on their own heads."
+
+With this he quitted the room by another door, leaving the astonished
+agent dumb with horror. For a few minutes he looked at the door by
+which Gustave had vanished with a bewildered mien. He had not
+understood the words of the German objurgations, but so much was clear
+to him that the "great German journalist" had not expressed very
+benevolent wishes with regard to himself and his Company. What should
+he do? The elder Mr. Sandow invisible, and the younger--
+
+The little gentleman shook his head thoughtfully, and said to himself--
+
+"Remarkable people, these German journalists! They are so nervous, so
+excited, one might almost say raving mad. When one pays them a
+compliment they answer by insult. Our gentlemen of the press are much
+more polite when people talk of their fame."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+Jessie had locked herself in her own room, and there gave full course
+to her tears. Never in her life had she felt so profoundly unhappy, so
+despairing, as at this hour. Now she felt how her whole heart clung to
+this man, whom cost what it might she would drive from her.
+
+Long ago, while he still lived in Germany, she had treasured a secret
+interest in her guardian's brother. She did not know him, but his pen
+wove an invisible bond between them. With what glowing eagerness had
+she read his articles; with what enthusiasm had she followed the
+flights of his idealism. She felt a community of ideas between them on
+all points of thought and sentiment, and by degrees he became a sort of
+ideal to her. And now the idealist had come--to falsify his whole past
+by yielding himself to his brother's sordid speculations. Then he
+concealed the best feelings of his heart from a cowardly fear of losing
+that brother's wealth; he heaped intrigue on intrigue to secure the
+coveted riches, then denied his bride rather than risk the fortune, and
+again courted the heiress. The most miserable selfishness, the most
+paltry calculations, were the mainsprings of his actions. Jessie hated
+and despised him with all her soul, but that she was forced to do so,
+that it was precisely this man whom she must despise, tore her very
+heart.
+
+She had thrown herself on her couch, and buried her face in the
+cushions, smothering there her sobs, when suddenly she heard her name
+called, and springing up, she was startled to see Gustave Sandow
+standing in the middle of the room. She passionately cried--
+
+"Mr. Sandow, how do you come here? I thought"--
+
+"Yes, you bolted the drawing-room door," interrupted Gustave, "and you
+ordered your maid to admit no one, but in spite of bolts and lady's
+maid I am here. I must speak to you; it is necessary for your sake as
+well as mine."
+
+"But I will not listen!" cried Jessie, with a vain attempt at
+self-control.
+
+"But I will be heard!" replied Gustave. "At first I thought of sending
+Frida as a mediator, but soon gave up the idea. It would have taken too
+long. She is still with her father."
+
+"With whom?"
+
+"With her father--my brother!" Jessie stood as if petrified. The
+revelation was so sudden that she could not at first realize it, till
+Gustave said--
+
+"May I now justify myself?"
+
+Then through her soul flashed hope and happiness. She allowed him to
+take her hand and to lead her to the sofa, and even to place himself
+beside her.
+
+"I have a confession to make to you, Miss Clifford," he began, "and to
+make all clear to you I must go far back into my brother's past life.
+By-and-bye, I may do it at greater length, but now I will only tell you
+enough to justify myself."
+
+He detained her hand in his, and Jessie left it unresistingly there.
+She began to believe in the possibility of justification.
+
+"My brother's domestic life was one of bitter experience. An apparently
+happy wedded life ended in a terrible discovery. He found himself
+betrayed by his wife and his dearest friend, and the circumstances of
+the discovery were such that with his domestic happiness fell also his
+outward prosperity. He neither would nor could remain longer at home,
+and went to America, where your parents received him. But in Germany he
+had left his daughter, his only child, who at that time was almost an
+infant. In his hatred, his bitterness against all, he would not
+acknowledge the child; it remained with the mother, who after the
+necessary divorce had married that man."
+
+He paused a moment. Jessie listened in breathless anticipation;
+over her pale, tear-stained face crept a slight flush, as Gustave
+continued--
+
+"I was then at the university, and had no means of supporting Frida,
+and all my representations in her behalf were fruitless. But I have
+never forsaken my little niece. The poor child had a comfortless youth
+in that family where her very presence was a rock of offence. Endured
+against his will by her step-father, treated by her own mother with
+indifference, nay, almost with aversion, she stood a stranger among her
+step-brothers and sisters, and with every year more keenly felt her
+loneliness. As soon as my means permitted, I assumed the rights of an
+uncle, which were certainly readily granted me, and extricated my niece
+from these surroundings. I placed her at school, where she remained
+till her mother's death. That death broke the bond which caused
+constant bitterness to my brother, and now I determined to come to
+America and fight for her rights, cost what it might."
+
+"And that was your reason for coming to America?" said Jessie, timidly.
+
+"That alone! I had already made an attempt by letter, but was most
+harshly repulsed by Frank. He threatened to break off all
+correspondence with me if I ever touched on the subject again. So then
+I placed all my hopes on the effect of Frida's own presence, but it at
+first seemed impossible to carry out this plan. I could not allow a
+young girl like that to cross the sea alone, and if she had appeared in
+my company my brother would have instantly had his suspicions roused.
+Then the death of your father, Miss Clifford, obliged him to think of a
+new partner, and his thoughts turned to me. Under ordinary
+circumstances the invitation to cast overboard my fatherland, my
+calling, and my independence, yes, the very heart and soul of my former
+life, for the sake of material interests, would have met with the most
+decided refusal; now it seemed like a sign from heaven itself. I
+apparently yielded, and started with Frida. She remained in New York
+while I viewed the field of action, and then introduced her under an
+assumed name into her father's house. You know what followed. The
+discovery has cost a last but severe struggle. There was a scene, which
+threatened to destroy all, but at last the father's heart awoke in my
+brother's bosom, and now he is reconciled with his child!"
+
+Jessie sat with eyes cast down and glowing cheeks while she listened to
+this recital, which took one thorn after another from her breast. It
+seemed to her as if she herself were released from a gloomy oppression,
+now that the veil which so long had covered the "egoist" had fallen.
+
+"Yes, Miss Clifford, now it is all up with the inheritance," said
+Gustave mischievously. "It was indeed offered to me, and I have had a
+hard fight for it, but only in the interest of the rightful heiress.
+Unfortunately, I must also resign the honour of becoming a partner in
+the house of Clifford. The editor and staff of the _K--sche Zeitung_
+have bound me by a solemn oath as soon as my leave of absence is at an
+end; and in the long run indeed 'keeping accounts' does not appeal
+very strongly to me. I shall take up my old colours again, which,
+by-the-bye, I have not so shamefully deserted as you supposed. Do you
+still find my presence at the office desk so contemptible an action?"
+
+Jessie looked at him, ashamed, confused, yet with a feeling of intense
+happiness--
+
+"I have wronged you, Mr. Sandow; it was certainly your own fault,
+but--I beg your pardon?"
+
+She could not offer him her hand, for he had never released it, but he
+pressed a kiss upon it which this time was quite patiently endured.
+
+"I have for weeks past rejoiced at the thought of this explanation,"
+said he, laughing. "Do you think I would have endured my brother's
+arbitrary manner and your contempt even for an hour, had I not been
+certain of your petition at the end?"
+
+"And Frida is really only your adopted child?" asked Jessie, with a
+throbbing heart, which could not be controlled. "You do not love her?"
+
+"Frida is my dear niece, and I am her venerated uncle, with that our
+mutual relation is exhausted. Now that she has found her father, I am
+become superfluous as an object of respect. But now that we are on the
+subject of love, Jessie, I have one question to put to you."
+
+The question seemed to be guessed, for Jessie's face was bathed in
+blushes. She dared not look up, but that was also unnecessary, for
+Gustave was already at her feet, so she was compelled to look down at
+him, as he, with warmest devotion, whispered--
+
+"My dearest, my beloved Jessie, it is now my turn to beg your pardon. I
+have intrigued, I have lied even to you, that cannot be denied, but I
+have also suffered for it, for you have compelled me to hear some
+bitter strictures. But one thing has remained real and true in me since
+our first meeting--the feeling which awoke in me when I first saw those
+blue eyes! So you must be gracious to me!"
+
+Jessie seemed certainly inclined to grace, that the blue eyes said
+before the lips could express it. He sprang up full of passionate joy,
+and the pardon was confirmed in every point, indeed, no necessary
+formalities were omitted.
+
+Half an hour later the two entered Frida's room, where Sandow still sat
+with his daughter. Gustave had drawn Jessie's hand within his arm, and
+now solemnly led her to his brother.
+
+"Frank," said he, "in your inconsiderate plan was one sensible
+idea--indeed a very sensible one--yes, my little Frida, do not make
+such astonished eyes at your uncle and your future aunt--these are
+things which you do not understand; with our mutual penetration we have
+discovered that one sensible idea, and now introduce ourselves to you
+as an engaged couple."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+It was the next morning. After breakfast the two brothers had withdrawn
+to the study of the elder one, and were alone there. Sandow sat at the
+writing-table; on his countenance lay an expression which for long
+years had never dwelt there, a shimmer of the happiness of former days,
+but his brow was still clouded as he spoke to his brother, who leant
+against the window opposite to him.
+
+"Then you will really forsake me and carry Jessie off to Germany? I
+hoped that when Clifford's daughter should belong to you, you would
+also become his successor in business, and thus fulfil his dearest
+wish. You need not on that account give up your pen altogether, the
+real weight of business will rest as before on my shoulders. Our press
+is mightier and more influential than yours, here you would find a
+freer and wider field than in our native land. Consider it!"
+
+"It requires no consideration," said Gustave with decision. "I can only
+give my whole interest and energy to one occupation. Merchant and
+_litterateur_; that won't do! Were the intellectual horizon here ten
+times as wide, every chord of my heart is bound to my home, I can only
+there work and create. And then we should never do as partners. For a
+few weeks I could wear the mask of a subordinate and be silent to all,
+for on Frida's account I wished to prevent a breach. But now Frank! I
+must tell you plainly that your business practice, your whole system,
+would render it impossible for us ever to get on together. It led you
+to a close union with Jenkins--in that lies your condemnation."
+
+Sandow did not spring up, as at such a declaration he would certainly
+have done before, but his brow took a deeper shade.
+
+"You look at things from one point of view and I from another. Your
+calling gives you perfect liberty in act and thought, I stand amidst
+all kinds of antagonistic interest, and cannot always choose my means.
+I wish"--he paused a moment, and then overcoming himself continued--"I
+wish I had not entered on this partnership with Jenkins. But it has
+happened, and I cannot extricate myself."
+
+"Can you really not? Is there no way out of it?"
+
+"I have told you that hundreds of thousands are invested in this
+affair, and run the risk of losing all if it does not succeed, or if I
+withdraw from it."
+
+"But you must withdraw whatever the loss may be!"
+
+Sandow looked at him as if he did not believe his ears.
+
+"At the risk of such a loss? Are you serious? Have you any idea of what
+such a sum means? I have done what I could, I have made the attempt to
+separate from Jenkins, to my injury--for he has become more obstinate
+in consequence. In his last letter he asked with ill-concealed
+suspicion, if I really required my money, since I appeared so anxious
+to withdraw my capital. He seems to suspect losses on my side, perhaps
+doubts my credit, and for a merchant that is the most dangerous thing
+that can happen. I must enter upon the thing with redoubled energy if I
+would repair such an imprudence."
+
+"Yesterday I gave you your child," said Gustave earnestly, "and I
+believe that in her you have won more than you will lose here. For
+Frida's sake I hoped you would withdraw from a speculation which
+hinders you from meeting your daughter's eyes."
+
+Sandow turned quickly away, but his voice had the old harsh sound as he
+replied--
+
+"Just for Frida's sake! Shall I impoverish my newly-found child? Shall
+I rob her of the half of her fortune?"
+
+"She will have enough in the other half, and I do not believe that the
+whole will bring a blessing, when it is retained at such a price."
+
+"Silence! You understand nothing about it. A retreat at any risk, such
+as you suggest is an impossibility, so not another word on the subject!
+Naturally, I release you from your promise, for, knowing you as I do
+now, I am sure that you have never written the articles."
+
+"The first is long since ready," replied Gustave coldly. "It will
+certainly be also the last, one such will suffice. I intended showing
+you the MSS. to-day. Here it is."
+
+He drew some pages of writing from his pocket, and offered them to his
+brother, who took them hesitatingly, and looked questioning and
+doubtfully at him.
+
+"Read," said Gustave simply.
+
+ Sandow began to read, at first slowly, but with, ever-increasing
+haste. He turned over the leaves with a trembling hand, and glanced
+over them. His face grew darker, and breaking off in the midst he threw
+the manuscript violently on the table.
+
+"Are you out of your mind! You have written, you will publish that! It
+is terrible what you there expose to the world!"
+
+Gustave drew himself up to his full height, and stepped up close to his
+brother.
+
+"Terrible! indeed it is! And the most terrible part is, that all these
+things are true. I have been on the spot, and can pledge my honour for
+every word that I have written there. Draw back, Frank, while there is
+yet time. This article, appearing in the _K--sche Zeitung_, repeated
+throughout the entire German press, cannot fail in its working. The
+Consulate, the Ministry will be obliged to notice it. They will take
+care that no one falls unwarned into the hands of Jenkin's and Co."
+
+"You are very proud of the wonderful effect of your pen!" cried Sandow
+beside himself. "You seem to have forgotten that I am an equal
+shareholder with Jenkins, and that when you describe the place in such
+revolting colours, every word is directed against the wealth and honour
+of your brother. You will not only ruin me by this, but represent me as
+a scoundrel in the eyes of all the world."
+
+"No. I shall not do that, for you will separate yourself altogether
+from this rascally company, and I shall add, that my brother, who had
+unwittingly become involved in this speculation, retreated from it at a
+great pecuniary sacrifice, as soon as his eyes were opened to the
+enormity of the proceeding. Declare this openly to the man, if you fear
+that merely withdrawing will be injurious to your credit. The truth,
+here too, is the best."
+
+"And you think that Jenkins would believe me, the merchant, the head of
+the house of Clifford, guilty of such an insane trick. He would simply
+believe I had lost my senses."
+
+"It is possible, for since this honourable personage has no conscience
+himself, he would not understand its existence in anyone else.
+Nevertheless, you must try every means."
+
+Sandow walked wildly up and down the room for a few minutes, at last he
+stopped and said with gasping breath--
+
+"You do not know what it is to seize a wasp's nest. In Europe you would
+at least be safe from their stings, while I must remain here open to
+all. Jenkins would never forgive me if my name were attached to any
+such revelations. He is influential enough to set against me all who
+are concerned in it, and they are counted by hundreds. You do not know
+the iron ring of interest which surrounds and binds us together. One
+hangs on the other, one supports the other. Woe to him who tears
+himself away and offers battle to his former companions. They all swear
+to destroy him. His credit is undermined, his plans crossed, he himself
+calumniated and harassed till he is ruined. Just now I could not
+support such attacks. Jessie's money will be lost to the firm, this
+speculation has weakened my own means to the last degree; should it
+fail, for me it will be the beginning of ruin. I speak as unreservedly
+to you as you have to me, and now go and publish your discovery to all
+the world!"
+
+He paused, overwhelmed with excitement; Gustave looked darkly before
+him, his brow, too, bore the marks of deep and anxious care.
+
+"I did not think that you were so surrounded and entangled on every
+side. That comes from this execrable system of business! Well then"--he
+laid his hand upon the paper--"destroy this, I will not write it again.
+I am silent when you assure me that my words will be your ruin. But the
+consequences are on your head! You must answer for every human life
+which is lost in that den of fever."
+
+"Gustave, you are killing me!" groaned Sandow sinking into a chair.
+
+The door was gently opened and the servant announced that the carriage
+which usually conveyed the two gentlemen to town was at the door.
+Gustave signed to the man to withdraw, and then bending over his
+brother said--
+
+"You cannot now come to a decision. You must be calm. Let me go alone
+to the office to-day and represent you there. You are terribly agitated
+and excited, too much came on you yesterday."
+
+Sandow made a mute sign of assent, he might well feel that he was not
+in a condition to show his ordinary calm business demeanour to his
+subordinates. But when his brother was already at the door, he suddenly
+started up,
+
+"One thing--not a word to Frida! Don't bring her into the field against
+me, or you drive me to extremities."
+
+"Be tranquil, I should not have ventured that," said Gustave with
+great emphasis. "It would estrange the scarcely won heart of your
+child--perhaps for ever. Good-bye Frank."
+
+About an hour later Frida entered her father's room, where he was still
+pacing restlessly up and down. She started when she saw him, for his
+countenance betrayed something of the struggle of the past hours. He
+tried indeed to conceal his agitation, and avoided giving a direct
+reply to the anxious inquiries of his daughter, but still she saw that
+he was devoured by feverish anxiety. The girl was still too much a
+stranger to venture on forcing his confidence by prayers and
+entreaties, but she looked with secret dread at the gloomy shadow which
+brooded over the brow, where nothing but joy and pardon should have
+been seen.
+
+Suddenly Gustave entered with Jessie; he appeared to have just returned
+from town, for he still held his hat and gloves; he had, however, been
+scarcely an hour absent.
+
+"I have brought Jessie with me," he said in his usual cheerful manner,
+"and since Frida is also here, we can hold another family council in
+your room. You are surprised to see me again so soon, Frank. I wished
+to relieve you of all business affairs to-day, but have been compelled
+to come to you for a decision. At the office I found some emigrants who
+would not be satisfied without seeing you, and as you were not coming
+to town today, I have brought them out here."
+
+"Yes, Gustave brought them out in his own carriage," said Jessie who
+had been rather astonished at seeing her future husband drive up to the
+door, with some homely peasants in the elegant equipage belonging to
+their house.
+
+"They are Germans, fellow-countrymen, indeed they are from our own
+little native place," added Gustave quickly. "They might not have been
+able to find their way here alone, so I considered it best to bring
+them."
+
+"That was quite unnecessary," said Sandow uneasily, and displeased at
+what he foresaw would be a last and decisive attack. "The thing could
+have waited till to-morrow. What have I personally to do with the
+wanderers? They can receive every information at the office. You have
+really brought them all here?"
+
+"Yes all, excepting the agent of Jenkins and Co. He was here yesterday
+with the object of speaking to you; I put him off till this morning,
+and arrived just in time to rescue these people from him; for he seemed
+resolved not to let them go till he had given them the fullest
+particulars. You will of course receive them; I promised them
+positively an interview with you."
+
+And without leaving his brother time to refuse, he opened the door of
+the adjoining room, and invited the men who were waiting there to
+enter. The two girls were about to retire when they found a business
+interview was to take place, but Gustave held Jessie's arm fast, and
+said softly but impressively to her and his niece--
+
+"Stay, both of you. I want you, but particularly Frida!"
+
+Meanwhile the strangers had entered. There were three men, robust
+country folk, with sunburnt faces and toil-hardened hands. The eldest,
+a man of middle age, appeared highly respectable in manner and dress.
+The two others were younger and looked more necessitous. They stood
+awkwardly near the door, while their leader made a few steps forward.
+
+"There is my brother," said Gustave, directing their attention to him.
+"Speak quite freely and fearlessly to him. Under the present
+circumstances, he only can give you the best advice."
+
+"God be with you, Mr. Sandow!" began the leader, with the touching
+German salutation, usual in his province, and with a strong, harsh
+provincial accent. "We are thankful to find Germans here, with whom we
+can speak an honest word. At your office where we at first sought you,
+we were ordered here and there, and were quite bewildered, till
+fortunately your brother appeared. He immediately took our part, and
+has been very rough with the agent who would not let us see you. But he
+was right then, for long ago we lost all confidence in the whole band."
+
+Sandow rose; he felt the storm approach, and cast a threatening,
+reproachful glance at the brother who had thus entangled him. But the
+merchant well knew that he must not allow the strangers to have any
+idea of his position, but must preserve his usual business air. He
+asked--
+
+"What do you want with me, and what am I to advise you upon?"
+
+The peasant looked at his two companions as if he expected them to
+speak, but as they remained silent and made energetic signs for him to
+continue, he alone replied--
+
+"We have fallen into a horrible trap, and know no way out of it. Before
+leaving Germany we were recommended to Jenkins and Company, and on
+arriving in New York were received by their agent. They promised us a
+mine of wealth, and at their office one seemed to believe that in the
+far west lay an earthly paradise. But on the way here we accidentally
+met a few Germans, who had been several years in America, and they told
+another tale. They bade us beware of this Jenkins and his western
+paradise. He was a regular cutthroat, and had already brought many to
+misery. We should all be ruined in his forests, and what all his other
+fine things might be. Then we felt stunned! The agent, who was
+travelling in another compartment, was furious when we plainly told him
+what we had heard, but as I said before, we had lost all confidence in
+him, and wished to consider the thing again before we travelled so many
+more hundred miles westward."
+
+Gustave, who stood beside Jessie, listened with apparent calm. She
+looked rather frightened; she did not know all the circumstances, but
+could easily feel that this meant more than an ordinary business
+affair.
+
+Frida, on the other hand, listened with breathless excitement to the
+words which bore such singular resemblance to those which, weeks ago,
+she had spoken to her father. But what could he have to do with this
+emigration scheme?
+
+"We were directed to your bank, Mr. Sandow," continued the man, "for
+the signing the contract and payment for the land. We heard in the
+neighbourhood that you were a German, and indeed out of our own
+province. Then I called together the others and said, 'Children, now
+there is no more difficulty; we will go to our countryman and lay the
+thing before him. He is a German, so will, no doubt, have a conscience,
+and will not send his fellow-countrymen to their destruction!'"
+
+If Sandow had not before realised to the full extent, what a sin
+his speculation was, he learnt it in this hour, and the simple,
+true-hearted words of the peasant burnt into his soul, as the bitterest
+reproaches could not have done.
+
+It was torture that he endured, but the worst was to come. Frida crept
+to his side. He did not look at her at that moment, he could not, but
+he felt the anxious, imploring look, and the trembling of the hand
+which clasped his own.
+
+"Now it is your turn to speak," said the man, turning half angrily to
+his companions, who had entirely left the management of the affair to
+him. "You, too, have wives and children, and have spent your last penny
+on the journey. Yes, Mr. Sandow, there are poor devils among us who
+have nothing but their strong arms, and can count on nothing but their
+labour. Some of us are certainly better off, and so we thought one
+could help the other in the new colony. There are about eighty of us,
+besides a dozen children, and for the poor little ones it would indeed
+be bad if things over there are as we have been told. So give us
+advice, _Herr Landsmann_! If you say to us, 'Go,' then in God's name we
+shall start early to-morrow, and hope for the best. It will be God
+Himself who has brought us to you, and we shall thank Him from the
+bottom of our hearts."
+
+Sandow leant heavily on the table which stood before him. Only by
+exerting the utmost force of will was he able to appear collected. Only
+Gustave knew what was raging in his heart, and he now decided to break
+the long and painful pause which had followed the last words.
+
+"Have no fear!" he cried. "You see my brother has himself a child, an
+only daughter, and thus he knows what the life and health of your
+little ones is to you. His advice can be implicitly followed. Now,
+Frank, what do you advise our countrymen to do?"
+
+Sandow looked at the three men, whose eyes rested anxiously, yet
+confidingly, on his face, then at his daughter, and suddenly standing
+erect, he cried--
+
+"Do not go there!"
+
+The men started back, and looked at each other, and then at the
+merchant, who had given them this strange advice.
+
+"But you are connected with this company?" cried the one, and the
+others confirmed his words. "Yes, indeed, you are one of them!"
+
+"In this affair I have been deceived myself," explained Sandow. "It is
+only lately that I have learnt exactly the nature of the land, of which
+I am certainly one of the owners, and I know that it is not suited for
+colonization. I will, therefore, make no contract with you, as I intend
+to withdraw from my obligations and give up the whole undertaking."
+
+The Germans had no suspicion what a sacrifice their countryman had made
+for them, or at what price their rescue had been bought. They looked
+quite helpless and despairing, and their leader said with startled
+manner--
+
+"This is an abominable business? We Lave made and paid for this long
+journey, and here we are in America. We cannot return, we must not
+proceed; we are betrayed and sold in a strange country. Mr. Sandow, you
+must advise us again, you mean well by us that we can see, or you would
+not deal such a blow at your own interest. Tell us what to do?"
+
+A heavy, troubled breath came from the breast of the merchant. Nothing
+was spared him to the last detail, but he had gone too far to retreat.
+
+"Go to the German Consul in this town," he replied, "and lay your case
+before him. As far as I know there is a German company in New York,
+which has also undertaken the colonization of the West, and which is
+under the special protection of our Consulate. Their possessions are
+not extremely distant from the original object of your journey, the
+route is almost the same. More particulars you will learn of the Consul
+himself; you may place implicit confidence in him, and he will assist
+you by every means in his power."
+
+The faces of the poor men cleared wonderfully at this intelligence.
+
+"Thank God! there is some escape for us!" said the leader. "We will
+start immediately so as to lose no time, and we are much indebted to
+you, sir, and to the young gentleman here. It is brave of you to retire
+from this swindling affair, as though you would not say so, we can see
+that it is a great loss to you. May God reward you for what you have
+done for us, and for our wives and children!"
+
+He offered his hand to the merchant, who took it mechanically, and the
+words of farewell with which he released the people were just as
+spiritless.
+
+But Gustave shook them all heartily by the hand, and rang the bell
+violently to summon a servant, whom he ordered to accompany them to the
+German Consulate and only to leave them at the door.
+
+When they were gone, Sandow threw himself into a chair; and the
+agitation which had been so sternly repressed now claimed its rights;
+he appeared crushed beneath it.
+
+"Father, for God's sake what is the matter?" cried Frida, throwing her
+arms round him, but now Gustave re-entered, his face actually beaming
+with triumph.
+
+"Let him be, Frida, it will pass. You have indeed right to be proud of
+your father! Frank, from the moment when our countrymen stood before
+you, I was certain that you would in the end warn them against your own
+speculation, but that you would have recommended them to the other
+company, against which Jenkins quite lately published a most violent
+article in the _New York Revolver Press_, that I did not hope, and for
+that I must shake you by the hand?"
+
+But Sandow waved him and his proffered hand away, and pressed his
+daughter to his breast. A bitter expression rested on his lips as he
+said--
+
+"You don't know what Gustave has done to you, my child, nor what this
+hour may yet cost to your father. From to-day Jenkins will be my most
+unyielding enemy, and will never rest from attacking me. I have placed
+myself only too entirely in his hands."
+
+"Throw the whole thing over and come with us to Germany," cried
+Gustave. "Why should you allow yourself to be tormented and harassed
+by these honourable New Yorkers, when you could live happy and
+comfortably in your native land. When Jessie is married there will be
+an end of the name of Clifford, why not also wind up the firm. Of
+course you will lose by withdrawing from the thing, but for German
+ideas you are still rich enough, and there is plenty of room for
+activity at home."
+
+"What are you proposing to me!" exclaimed Sandow, irritably.
+
+"Just what you proposed to me when you called me here. I think the best
+way is to turn the thing completely round. Look how Frida's face lights
+up at the thought of home! Naturally she will never again leave her
+father, wherever he may be, but it may be your lot to see her die of
+home-sickness some day."
+
+Gustave had cleverly set the most efficacious spring in motion. Sandow
+gave a startled look at his daughter, whose eyes certainly beamed when
+her home was mentioned, and who now resignedly drooped her head.
+
+"Come, Jessie," said Gustave, taking the arm of his betrothed, "we will
+leave them alone. I must explain all this to you, for I see that you
+only half comprehend it, and besides I feel an urgent necessity to be
+again admired by you. Yesterday you did me an extraordinary amount of
+good."
+
+He led her away, and father and daughter remained alone. Frida required
+no explanation, he had long ago divined the circumstances, and clinging
+close to her father, she said with the deepest affection--
+
+"I knew very well when we were standing that time by the sea that you
+could never send any one into misery!"
+
+Sandow looked long and deeply into the dark eyes, which now beamed with
+love and admiration. It was the first time he did so, without reading a
+reproach in them, and he felt as if redeemed to a new life.
+
+"No, my child!" said he softly, "I could not do it, and now whatever
+may come, we will bear it together."
+
+Meanwhile Gustave and Jessie strolled arm-in-arm through the garden,
+but at first their talk was very serious. He told her all, screening
+his brother as much as possible, whom he represented as the victim of a
+deception which had only just become clear to him. When he had
+finished, Jessie said eagerly--
+
+"Gustave, even if my money had been mixed up with this, it is
+unnecessary to say that we will leave it to the uncontrolled management
+of your brother as long as he wants it."
+
+"Your money has never been concerned in it," Gustave informed her.
+"Whatever Frank may be as a speculator, as a guardian, he is
+conscientiousness itself. He has respected your father's will to the
+fullest extent. You are and remain still an heiress, Jessie, but in
+spite of that uncomfortable peculiarity, I am resolved to marry you,
+and in four weeks, too."
+
+"That is impossible," protested Jessie. "There are so many things to
+order and prepare. You must see yourself that the time is too short."
+
+"I see nothing of the kind," declared Gustave. "The business part my
+brother will arrange, everything can be settled within the time named.
+In your America everything is done at express speed, speculation,
+fortune-making, even living and dying. I do not find this custom
+unpleasant since it can be extended even to marrying, and as your
+future tyrant I require you to become my wife in four weeks."
+
+Jessie did not appear to dread this tyranny too much, but after some
+discussion she, smiling and blushing, consented, when her lover said--
+
+"At least I can stand by my brother when the first storm breaks, and it
+will not be long before it does. At the Consulate, of course, all the
+particulars will be learnt, and by the evening they will have spread
+through the whole town. That amiable agent, the admirer of my literary
+fame, will first tear his hair, and then send telegram upon telegram to
+New York. I wish I could see how Jenkins and Co. breathe fire and
+flame, and wish me in the lowest depths of hell. With God's help I hope
+to renew that pleasure whenever my articles appear. They shall learn to
+know the pen they wished to buy."
+
+"But do you think really that my guardian can release himself from
+these obligations?" asked Jessie.
+
+"He must, at any price! After the events of to-day there is no choice
+left him, and he is business man enough to save all that is possible.
+Jenkins will certainly make his life a misery to him, so much the
+better! Then he will be obliged to turn his eyes towards Germany, and
+we shall win him back. He will never return to his old fever for
+speculation, and here there is so much temptation to it. The ice is now
+broken, and Frida has so much of the charm of novelty about her that we
+may confidently leave the rest to her. I pledge my word on it, in a few
+years she will bring her father home to us!"
+
+They had unconsciously reached the shore, and now stood by the bench
+where Frida had sat on that memorable evening. Before them lay the sea,
+bathed in sunshine.
+
+Gustave pointed across it, while he put his arm round his future wife.
+
+"There lies my native land, Jessie! In a few weeks it will also be your
+home, as it was the home of your own mother, and as such you will learn
+to love it. What my brother declared this morning may be true--that
+here the intellectual field too, is wider and freer than with us, that
+one rises more rapidly here, and wields a mightier power, even with the
+pen. With us just now, our first duty is to hold high our flag in the
+midst of the hottest fight, and to defend it with the whole strength of
+our lives. But that I will do joyfully and with all my heart, and ask
+no other reward than that my Jessie, my beloved wife, shall be
+contented with her egoist."
+
+
+
+                                THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+          Printed by Remington & Co., 134, New Bond Street, W.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Partners, by E. Werner
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARTNERS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 35135-8.txt or 35135-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/1/3/35135/
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/35135-8.zip b/35135-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c4090cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35135-8.zip
diff --git a/35135-h.zip b/35135-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..447ca30
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35135-h.zip
diff --git a/35135-h/35135-h.htm b/35135-h/35135-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..425d720
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35135-h/35135-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,4702 @@
+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
+<html>
+<head>
+<title>Partners: A Novel</title>
+<meta name="Author" content="E. Werner">
+<meta name="Publisher" content="Remington and Co.">
+<meta name="Date" content="1882">
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
+<style type="text/css">
+body  {margin-left:10%;
+       margin-right:10%; background-color:#FFFFFF;}
+
+
+
+p.normal  {text-indent:.25in; text-align: justify;}
+p.center   {text-align:center; margin-top:9pt;}
+
+
+p.right          {text-align:right; margin-right:20%;}
+
+p.continue       {text-indent: 0in; margin-top:9pt;}
+.text10           {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:10%; margin-right:0px; font-size:90%;}
+.text20           {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:20%; margin-right:0px; font-size:90%;}
+
+.t0              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t1              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:1em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t2              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:2em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t3              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:3em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t4              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:4em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t5              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:5em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t6              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:6em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t7              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:7em; margin-right:0px;}
+.t8              {margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:8em; margin-right:0px;}
+
+.quote           {font-size:90%; margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt}
+.dateline        {text-align:right; font-size:90%; margin-right:10%; margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt}
+
+h1,h2,h3,h4,h5   {text-align: center;}
+
+span.sc		    {font-variant: small-caps; font-size:100%;}
+span.sc2		{font-variant: small-caps; font-size:90%;}
+
+hr.W10		  {width:10%;
+               color:black;}
+
+hr.W20        {width:20%;
+               color:black;}
+
+hr.W50        {width:50%; margin-top:12pt; color:black;}
+hr.W90        {width:90%; margin-top:12pt; color:black;}
+
+p.hang1        {margin-left:1em; text-indent:-1em;}
+p.hang2        {margin-left:1em; text-indent:0em;}
+
+.poem {
+  margin-top: 24pt;
+  margin-left: 10%;
+  margin-right: 10%;
+  text-align: left;
+  margin-bottom: 24pt
+  }
+  .poem .stanza {
+  margin : 1em 0;
+  margin-top:24pt;
+  }
+
+</style>
+
+</head>
+
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Partners, by E. Werner
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Partners
+       A Novel.
+
+Author: E. Werner
+
+Translator: H. G. Godwin
+
+Release Date: January 31, 2011 [EBook #35135]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARTNERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="hang1">Transcriber's Note:<br>
+Page scan source:
+http://books.google.com/books?id=WO0BAAAAQAAJ&amp;dq</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="center"><i>At every Library</i>.</p>
+<table cellpadding="10" style="width:60%; margin-left:20%; border-top:solid black 4px;
+border-bottom: solid black 4px; border-right:solid black 4px; border-left:solid black 4px">
+<tr><td>
+<h2>LUCREZIA.</h2>
+
+<h4><i>A STORY</i>.</h4>
+
+<h3><span class="sc">By</span> MRS. COMYNS CARR,</h3>
+
+<h5><i>Author of</i> &quot;<i>North Italian Folk</i>,&quot; &quot;<i>A Story of<br>
+Autumn</i>,&quot; <i>&amp;c</i>.</h5>
+<br>
+
+<hr class="W20">
+<h4><span class="sc">1 Vol. 10s. 6d</span>.</h4>
+<hr class="W20">
+<br>
+
+<h3>REMINGTON &amp; CO., 134, New Bond St., W.</h3></td></tr>
+</table>
+<br>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Of all Booksellers</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h1>P A R T N E R S.</h1>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h3>A Novel.</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h5>BY</h5>
+
+<h2>E. WERNER.</h2>
+
+<h5>AUTHOR OF &quot;SUCCESS AND HOW HE WON IT,&quot; &quot;UNDER A CHARM,&quot;<br>
+&quot;RIVEN BONDS,&quot; &quot;NO SURRENDER,&quot; &amp;c., &amp;c.</h5>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr class="W20">
+<h3><i>TRANSLATED BY H. G. GODWIN</i>.</h3>
+<hr class="W20">
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h4>London:</h4>
+<h3 style="margin-top:-9pt; margin-bottom:-9pt">REMINGTON AND CO.,</h3>
+<h3><span class="sc2">New Bond Street, W</span>.</h3>
+<hr class="W10">
+<h4>1882.</h4>
+<br>
+<h4>[<i>All Rights Reserved</i>.]</h4>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h1>PARTNERS.</h1>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="continue">It was afternoon on a sunny spring day. The profound Sabbath rest and
+stillness which found no place in the incessant turmoil of the great
+commercial seaport reigned the more undisturbed around a country house
+which lay beyond the great sea of buildings near the shore, and whose
+park-like grounds stretched down to the water. It was one of those
+imposing, elegantly and luxuriously appointed villas which rich
+townspeople usually inhabit when they wish to live secure from street
+noises and confusion, and yet would be able to reach the town without
+great loss of time. In the drawing-room, whose French windows opened
+upon the garden terrace, were a lady and gentleman engaged in an eager
+and obviously earnest conversation. The cheeks of the young lady glowed
+in hot excitement, and she struggled visibly with hardly repressed
+tears, while the gentleman appeared perfectly indifferent and unmoved.
+He was a man of middle age, but with already completely grey hair, and
+grave, cold features; his whole appearance betokened the business man.
+The calm and cool indifference of his manner was not lost for a moment
+in the most exciting conversation, and even his mode of speaking was
+dry and businesslike, without a trace of any warmer feeling.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Really, Jessie,&quot; said he, &quot;I am weary of this constant repetition of
+the old lamentations. As your guardian and relative I have undertaken
+the care of your future, and I should have thought the future which I
+lay before you acceptable enough. But such a silly, romantic, girlish
+head will never be able to judge what is for its own happiness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The silly, romantic, girlish head was at least not deficient in grace.
+Without being regularly beautiful, the fair head, the delicate, but
+very expressive features, and the rather languishing blue eyes, had
+something uncommonly attractive.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At this moment, however, the youthful countenance bore the expression
+of passionate excitement, and the same excitement trembled in her voice
+when she replied--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My happiness! What you call by that name, Uncle Sandow, lies
+immeasurably far from what is happiness to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Will you, perhaps, tell me what misty and fantastic idea you connect
+with the word?&quot; said Sandow, in a sarcastic tone. &quot;Happiness is a
+brilliant position in life, in the midst of wealth, at the side of a
+husband who, under all circumstances, can be a support to you. That is
+offered to you with the hand of a man&quot;--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Whom I don't even know,&quot; interrupted Jessie.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But whose acquaintance you will make within an hour. Besides, my
+brother is no stranger to you, even if you have not yet actually seen
+him. According to his portrait, his exterior leaves nothing to be
+wished for, and you have declared that no other inclination binds you.
+Why, then, this obstinate struggle against a union for which Gustave is
+already prepared?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Just because he was so quickly prepared for it. I cannot--I will not
+confide my future to a man who does not for a moment hesitate to give
+up his chosen calling, his already brilliant career, because the
+prospect of a wealthy match is held out to him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There again are the exaggerated ideas with which your German education
+has imbued you, and without which you were quite sentimental enough.
+Chosen calling! Brilliant career! You seem to have a very exalted idea
+of the position of a German journalist. Gustave's pen is admired and
+sought for so long as the whim of the public and the present political
+tendency last. Sooner or later that will come to an end, and then
+good-bye to his brilliant career. Here in America independence, riches,
+and the coveted post of head of a great commercial house, are offered
+to him. He would be worse than a fool to throw that up in order to
+continue to write leading articles.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is a matter of taste, and I assure you, Uncle Sandow, it would be
+quite immaterial to me whom you might choose as a partner if you would
+not draw me within the circle of your business calculations.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do it in your own interest. You know it was the dearest wish of your
+late father to keep your fortune in the business. He ever hoped that
+his place there would be filled by his son-in-law. It was not granted
+to him to see this himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No,&quot; said Jessie, softly, &quot;for he never had the heart to force me as
+you do now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow made an impatient movement.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What exaggerated expressions are these! I do not think of forcing you,
+but I require with the greatest decision that you should listen to
+reason, and not cast aside the idea of this union without farther
+consideration, merely because it does not agree with your romantic
+ideas. You are nineteen, and must now think of marriage. Ideal
+marriages, such as you dream of, do not exist. To every one who woos
+you your fortune is the great attraction. The days of disinterested
+love are long past, and when one or another plays such a comedy with
+you it is only more surely to squander your money afterwards. It is
+important that you should make that perfectly clear to yourself, or the
+inevitable disappointments may be too hard for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">An incredible heartlessness lay in the icy calm with which he reckoned
+all this up in the ears of his ward, and reduced the step on which
+depended all the dreams, illusions, all the future hopes of the young
+girl, to a flavourless calculation, of which the factor was her
+fortune.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie's lip trembled painfully at this merciless exposition, for the
+air of infallibility with which it was pronounced showed her that
+Sandow really expressed his inmost convictions. Had she not already
+learnt what it meant to be a good match, and to thus enchain the
+selfishness and calculations of every man with whom she came in
+contact? Even her guardian saw and respected in her only the heiress, a
+bitter thought for a young creature whose heart longed passionately for
+happiness and love.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here you need not fear this,&quot; continued Sandow, who looked on her
+silence as a kind of assent. &quot;This marriage offers you both similar
+advantages. With your hand Gustave receives a fortune and a high
+position in the commercial world here; through him you retain an
+interest in your father's business, and have the certainty that your
+wealth will be controlled and increased by your husband. The thing is
+so clear and simple that I cannot really comprehend your obstinate
+resistance, particularly as you have interested yourself formerly about
+Gustave, and you have always read his articles with the greatest
+enthusiasm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because I believed in the writer of them; because I did not imagine it
+possible that all this glowing love of country, all this enthusiasm for
+the great and beautiful, could be only phrases to be cast to the winds
+as soon as it appeared advantageous to do so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;These knights of the quill are accustomed to fine expressions,&quot; said
+Sandow slightingly. &quot;It is a business matter. It would be hard upon
+them if they must match word and deed. Gustave has written as his
+situation and the tendency of the day demanded, and now he acts as
+reason requires. If he did not he would be useless to me as a partner.
+And now let us end the discussion. I do not urge you to decide either
+to-day or to-morrow, but await nevertheless with certainty your assent
+to my wishes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Never!&quot; cried Jessie, flaming out. &quot;To belong to a man who sees in me
+merely a paragraph in a business contract; to an egoist who sacrifices
+to his material gain all that is holy and dear to others! Never!
+Never!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow took little or no notice of this passionate outburst. If Jessie
+had been his daughter he would have simply commanded and forced her to
+follow his wishes, but he knew too well the limits of his power as
+guardian to attempt anything of the kind here. He knew besides that his
+long-accustomed and dreaded authority was of itself a kind of
+compulsion to the girl, and was determined to employ it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We will leave the subject now,&quot; said he, rising. &quot;I am going to the
+station, and expect in an hour to present my brother to you. You will
+condescend in the first place to learn to know him, and everything else
+will follow in time. Good-bye.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With this he left the room, and the carriage, which had been waiting
+for him, rolled from the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie remained alone, and now, when she felt herself no longer under
+the ban of those cold, hard eyes, the long-repressed tears burst forth.
+The girl plainly did not belong to those energetic natures which set
+will against will. In these tears she betrayed all the weakness of a
+character accustomed to be directed and led, and which, in the first
+struggle to which it must arm itself, feels its own impotence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was, indeed, the first struggle of her life. Reared in the happiest
+circumstances, sheltered by the love of the tenderest parents, pain had
+first approached her when her mother died, and two years after her
+father followed his wife to the grave. In his will, Sandow, the friend
+and partner of many years, was named guardian of the orphan girl, and
+her pecuniary interests could have been placed in no better hands.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Jessie had never succeeded in forming a real attachment to her
+uncle, though she had known him from her childhood. He was a near
+relation of her mother's, and like her a native of Germany. More than
+twelve years before he had come almost destitute to America, and had
+sought and found a situation in her father's business. They said
+misfortunes and bitter experiences had driven him from Europe. What
+these really had been Jessie could never learn, for even her parents
+seemed only partially informed on the subject, and Sandow himself never
+alluded to it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the beginning he had been placed in a subordinate position in the
+office merely out of consideration for him as a connection, but he soon
+developed such a restless activity, such prudence and energy, that he
+speedily won for himself a place second only to the chief himself, and
+when a threatened business crisis was turned aside only through his
+timely and energetic action, he was promoted to a share in the concern,
+which under his guidance soon made quite a new departure. A succession
+of bold and fortunate speculations raised the, till then, modest firm
+to the position of the first in the town, and the new chief managed to
+employ so successfully the weight which this good-fortune gave him that
+he became almost sole ruler, and at all events possessed the first and
+decisive voice in any question of importance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In this way Sandow had become in a comparatively short time a wealthy
+man. As he was alone, he resided as before in the house of his
+relations, but in spite of this domestic intercourse of many years'
+duration, and in spite also of the community of interests, he had never
+become really united with them. His cold, harsh manner closed the way
+to any nearer approach; he recognised nothing but business interests
+and incessant labour, and never sought rest or relaxation in the family
+circle; indeed, these were things which for him appeared to have no
+existence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie's father made no opposition to his partner taking the greater
+portion of the work and anxiety off his own shoulders, being himself
+more inclined to social enjoyment, to an easy family life. Since he met
+Sandow's wishes on this point the relations between the two men had
+always been most harmonious, though they may have arisen in the first
+place more out of mutual necessity than real friendship.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Now the management of the young heiress's possessions lay in Sandow's
+hands alone, and he soon extended his rights so far as to wish to
+control also her future. With the same inconsiderate selfishness which
+all his undertakings displayed, he wove the plan of a marriage between
+his ward and his brother, and was as much surprised as displeased when
+his scheme, which was unconditionally accepted on the one side, found
+decided opposition on the other. However, he paid little attention to
+this opposition, and was firmly convinced that the girl, who till now
+had shown neither strength nor inclination for independent action,
+would also, in this respect, follow his wishes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The hour destined for the journey to and from the station had nearly
+elapsed when the carriage again drew up at the door, and immediately
+after the two gentlemen appeared in the drawing-room where Jessie still
+sat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow did not appear in the least agitated at again meeting his
+brother after a separation of so many years. His manner was as unmoved,
+his tone as cool as usual, as he presented Mr. Gustave Sandow to Miss
+Jessie Clifford. The new arrival approached the young lady with a
+polite bow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;May I also reckon on a friendly reception from you, Miss Clifford? I
+come as a stranger indeed, but I bring you a greeting from the land
+which was your mother's. Let this be my introduction to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">That sounded not only kindly, but friendly, almost warm. Jessie looked
+up with surprise, but the searching, piercing look which met hers
+chilled her again directly, for it recalled to her the cause of their
+acquaintance. She replied with cool civility--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I hope you had a pleasant voyage, Mr. Sandow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Remarkably so. We had the calmest sea, the most agreeable passage, and
+also during my land journey the weather has been most delightful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is why you have protracted it so long, I suppose,&quot; said Sandow,
+joining in the conversation. &quot;You have wandered about the country in
+every direction like a tourist. We expected you a fortnight ago.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, one ought to learn to know the country and the people,&quot; rejoined
+Gustave. &quot;Did you wish me to come direct here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not exactly. I quite understand your staying in the large towns. It is
+always an advantage to be personally acquainted with one's commercial
+correspondents. Unfortunately I have no time for it, but I certainly
+provided you with plenty of letters of introduction. What is it--a
+telegram?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The last words were addressed to a servant who had entered behind the
+two gentlemen, and who now offered him a telegram which had just
+arrived.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">While Gustave and Miss Clifford exchanged the first general remarks,
+the elder brother opened the telegram, glanced over it, and then,
+turning to the other two, said--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I must leave you for half an hour; a matter of business which demands
+immediate attention.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To-day! Sunday?&quot; asked Gustave. &quot;Do you, then, never allow yourself a
+moment's rest?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why should I? Something might then be neglected. On Sunday, when the
+offices are closed, I have the most pressing business sent out here.
+You looked up Jenkins and Co. in New York, Gustave? The telegram comes
+from them. I shall speak about it to you later. Meanwhile, I leave you
+in Jessie's company; so good-bye.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He folded the telegram together and went.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="continue">The younger brother looked after him with an air of the most profound
+astonishment.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well! one does not seem in danger of being spoiled by excessive
+brotherly love,&quot; he remarked drily, turning towards Jessie.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You must know your brother to a certain extent,&quot; she answered simply,
+accustomed to see business take precedence of everything.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly! but in Europe he was a little more considerate. I thought I
+had a claim on, at least, the first hour after my arrival.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You must be tired after your journey,&quot; said Jessie, seeking for some
+excuse for avoiding this equally unexpected and undesired
+<i>tête-à-tête</i>. &quot;Your rooms are ready if you would, perhaps&quot;--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thanks, no!&quot; interrupted Gustave; &quot;I am not in the least tired, and
+have really every cause to be grateful to Jenkins and Co. for procuring
+me the pleasure of your company.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With that he drew a chair towards him, and sat down opposite to her.
+But neither his serene and careless air, nor his prepossessing
+appearance, succeeded in thawing the cold reserve of the young lady.
+She was not surprised to find him considerably younger than her
+guardian, as she knew he was the child of a second marriage. The elder
+brother was, indeed, already past middle age, while the younger was
+scarcely over thirty. On the whole, his exterior was exactly that
+represented in the picture which hung in his brother's study. A
+powerful, manly figure, agreeable, intelligent features, dark hair and
+beard, and lively, sparkling dark eyes, which were distinctly fine and
+expressive. But it was just those eyes which displeased Jessie, for she
+felt instinctively that her whole character was being put to the proof
+by them. The same observant glance which had met hers in the first
+moment of their acquaintance rested steadily on her countenance. Mr.
+Sandow, junior, was openly examining her, as the first paragraph of the
+business contract clearly entitled him to do, and that was amply
+sufficient to awake the most decided opposition in the mind of the
+young lady. He began the conversation by remarking--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am unfortunately quite unacquainted with your home. I come, an
+inexperienced European, as if fallen from the clouds into the new
+world, and count upon your friendly support.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think you will find the help of your brother better, and more to be
+relied on, than any I might venture to give.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No doubt, as far as business affairs are concerned. Under all other
+circumstances, however, he seems to me rather unapproachable, and then
+there are some subjects with which I should like to make myself
+acquainted by the way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">By the way! Yes, just so, by the way, so should a marriage be
+considered a life-long bond which others are accustomed to regard as
+the highest and holiest. The &quot;inexperienced European&quot; seemed to look on
+life quite from his brother's point of view, and to consider such
+relations as merely of secondary importance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But no doubt they are entirely business affairs which bring you here,&quot;
+said Jessie, not without irony. &quot;As far as I know, you intend to enter
+our firm?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly! My brother has made that an indispensable condition.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Condition! Were you not, then, free to act as you chose, Mr. Sandow?
+But I forgot; no doubt it concerns the inheritance of your brother's
+fortune.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The stab struck home; that was seen in the sudden flash of the dark
+eyes, but it produced no other effect, for Gustave replied with the
+most delightful candour--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite right; the inheritance. It really was in jeopardy had I
+declined. My brother was quite capable of leaving the whole of his
+means to a philanthropical institution had I not obeyed his wishes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie hardly knew whether to be more surprised or annoyed at the
+openness with which this man acknowledged that he had come to America
+merely for the sake of the money. And this he declared before the woman
+whose hand and fortune were both destined for him, and in whom
+annoyance at last gained the upper hand as she replied--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Till now I did not know that calculation was so well understood in
+Germany.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! thank God at last we are becoming a practical people,&quot; said
+Gustave, with unalterable composure. &quot;We have been long about it, but
+now we are making undeniable progress. You seem to consider it a
+reproach, Miss Clifford!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No; but I learnt to look on the land to which my mother belonged, and
+which she taught me to regard as a second home, from quite another
+side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;From the ideal side probably. Now I will not deny that this also
+exists; but, on the whole, people are now sweeping away the ideal from
+amongst us. There are only a few who still acknowledge it in word or
+deed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Just on that account should the few gather round their threatened
+colours, and venture life and blood for their sake!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The phrase sounded rather peculiar in the mouth of a young girl, but
+she was plainly understood. Again the dark eyes flashed, but this time
+in unconcealed surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah! how flattering! A quotation from one of my own articles! You know
+them then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The journal with which you are connected is one of the greatest
+political importance,&quot; said Jessie coolly. &quot;It has always been read in
+our house. But just because I know your articles, does it surprise me
+that you were able to release yourself so easily and completely from
+all the bonds which held you to your native country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You mean the duties to which I am bound by my connection with the
+journal!&quot; remarked Gustave. &quot;There were certainly difficulties, but
+they have been arranged according to my wishes. One journalist more or
+less in Germany makes no difference, and my pen has been long since
+replaced by another, and, no doubt, a better one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie pressed her lips together. This wilful misunderstanding angered
+her inexpressibly, and she was still more annoyed at the persevering
+gaze, which yet had nothing obtrusive, but strove to conceal itself
+under the appearance of an animated conversation. In spite of this
+Jessie had the sensation that her whole character was being thoroughly
+studied, and this drove her by degrees from her reserve into a state of
+irritation entirely foreign to her disposition.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I did not know I had such an attentive reader on this side the ocean,&quot;
+Gustave continued, in the most amiable manner. &quot;Since I have learnt the
+fact, I should like to beg for your criticism. You have declared
+already that you love my home like a second fatherland. May I, then,
+reckon on your sympathy for all that my pen describes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have given up your literary career,&quot; remarked Jessie, &quot;for a more
+advantageous one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes; I yielded to the force of circumstances. That does not seem to be
+judged favourably, but perhaps the author finds more grace in your eyes
+than the future partner in the firm of Clifford and Company.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At all events, I can admire the ease with which the one has been
+metamorphosed into the other.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was an annihilating look which accompanied the words, but Gustave
+Sandow was not to be so easily annihilated. He bore the look calmly,
+and his reply betrayed even a certain humour, which increased the
+growing irritation of the young lady.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The criticism is not a favourable one, I see. But that is just the
+reason why I must hear it. You must not withhold your bad opinion from
+me, Miss Clifford. I insist upon knowing my sentence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Without reserve?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite without reserve.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, Mr. Sandow, I declare openly to you that I have read with
+the fullest sympathy and admiration everything which came from your
+pen, till the moment when you accepted your brother's proposal. I
+should never have thought it possible. I thought that anyone who
+devoted himself so entirely to his country as you did, who fought so
+energetically for its rights, who summoned others so stirringly to
+their duties, must also abide by the colours to which he had sworn
+fealty, and dare not forsake them for mere fortune's sake. I could not
+believe that the pen from which flowed such glowing words should serve
+for the future to write figures, and only figures; that the undaunted
+champion should of his own free-will throw down his weapons, and quit
+the lists, to take a comfortable seat at the office desk. I doubted the
+possibility till the moment of your arrival, and that I must at last
+believe it--that is the bitterest disappointment of my life!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie felt herself to be drawn on by her excitement to insult the man
+who sat before her, but she cared not for that. She saw in him only the
+adversary, only the importunate suitor, whom she would keep at a
+distance cost what it might. Let him feel in the first hour how deeply
+she despised his selfishness, then there would be no room to doubt how
+she felt about the marriage scheme, and she was safe from his wooing.
+But he did not appear very sensitive to insult, for he maintained the
+most perfect composure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Miss Clifford, for a merchant's daughter, and the sleeping partner in
+a great mercantile house, you appear to nourish very disrespectful
+ideas of accounts and the office desk,&quot; said he, with revolting
+indifference. &quot;My brother would be shocked. I feel myself extremely
+flattered that my modest pen has had the power of awakening so much
+interest, and as to the disappointment, I do not give up the hope of at
+last succeeding in bringing you to a better opinion of my performances
+at the office desk.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie made no reply. She completely lost her self-control at this way
+of turning affront into compliment, and at the smiling calm with which
+the man&#339;uvre was carried out.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Fortunately at this moment the door opened, and Sandow entered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The telegrams are sent off,&quot; said he. &quot;Now I am again at your
+disposal. I suppose dinner will soon be ready, Jessie?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have still some necessary orders to give, which I will do at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And hastily, as if taking to flight before the new arrival, but not
+without casting on him another glance of contempt, she left the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, what do you think of Jessie?&quot; said Sandow, as soon as the
+brothers were alone; &quot;and what progress have you made with her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Progress! Surely, Frank, you did not quite expect me to make her a
+proposal of marriage at the first interview!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But at least you might lead the way to it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The way has opened most successfully,&quot; Gustave assured him. &quot;We have
+already had a most lively dispute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dispute! What do you mean?&quot; and Sandow, who had seated himself near
+his brother, looked up as if he could hardly believe his ears. &quot;Is that
+the way you begin your courtship?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why not? At least it prevents indifference. That I certainly need not
+fear from Miss Clifford. She is prejudiced against me to the highest
+degree, and looks upon my leaving my country at your call as a kind of
+treachery against it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, the girl has her head full of romantic ideas,&quot; said Sandow
+angrily. &quot;That is owing to the sentimental, high-flown education she
+received from her mother. Clifford could not be induced to oppose it,
+although otherwise his understanding was healthy enough. He idolized
+his only daughter, and thought her everything that is good and
+beautiful. You will have to contend with these exaggerated ideas when
+Jessie is your wife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Around Gustave Sandow's lips played a half ironical smile as he
+replied--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you, then, think it is a settled thing that she will become my
+wife? At present I seem to have the most brilliant prospects of
+refusal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stupid girlish whims! nothing more. She has taken it into her head
+that marriage must be preceded by a love romance. But you&quot;--and here
+Sandow's eyes rested on his brother's handsome person--&quot;it need not be
+difficult for you to gain ground with her, and my authority will do the
+rest. Jessie is far too dependent a character not to be led at last.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, I have not seen any symptoms of this dependence myself,&quot;
+remarked Gustave drily. &quot;Miss Clifford was tolerably energetic when she
+gave me the flattering information that my acquaintance was one of the
+bitterest disappointments of her life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow wrinkled his forehead.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She told you that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Literally, and accompanied the speech with the necessary air of
+dislike and contempt. She is a quite peculiar mixture of maidenly
+reserve and genuine American self-consciousness. In our country a young
+girl would hardly have read a total stranger such a lecture.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! no; Jessie is thoroughly German,&quot; said Sandow. &quot;She is the living
+image of her mother, and has not a single trait of her American father.
+But never mind that now. Let us come to the point. I never felt any
+doubt as to your acceptance of my proposal; that it has taken place so
+quickly and unreservedly is very agreeable to me, since it proves that,
+in spite of all your idealistic scribbling, you have managed to
+preserve a clear, cool head capable of making a calculation, which is
+just what is wanted here. Jessie is in every respect a brilliant match,
+such as you would scarcely have found under other circumstances. For
+me, the first recommendation of the plan is that it will keep
+Clifford's money in the firm. Our interests are therefore identical,
+and I hope we shall be satisfied with each other.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I hope so too,&quot; said Gustave laconically.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The purely business view taken by his brother of the projected marriage
+seemed to surprise him as little as the judgment on his scribbling hurt
+him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The arrangement, then, remains as settled in our letters,&quot; continued
+Sandow. &quot;For the present you enter the office as a volunteer in order
+to learn your new calling. That is not difficult for anyone gifted with
+the necessary education and intelligence. All beyond requires merely
+habit and practice. As soon as your engagement with Jessie is openly
+announced, you will have a share in the business. So don't delay your
+explanation too long. As an heiress, Jessie is naturally much run
+after, and in little more than a year she will be of age. Besides, at
+the present moment I have some large undertakings in view, and must be
+certain of complete control over the whole capital.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And therefore Miss Clifford and I must marry,&quot; added Gustave. &quot;One
+sees that you are accustomed to make the most of a fortunate
+conjuncture, whether of men or dollars.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a touch of mockery in these words, but Sandow did not appear
+to notice it. In his reply lay the same icy indifference which he had
+displayed in his conversation with Jessie.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;One must reckon with men as with figures; in that lies the whole
+secret of success. At all events, you have every reason to thank the
+present conjuncture. Besides all the other advantages, it secures my
+money to you. You know I have no other relative or heir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No other! Really?&quot; asked Gustave in a peculiar tone, while he gazed
+fixedly at his brother.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In that one short word what unbounded severity and determination!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then you have not altered your views. I thought that now years have
+rolled by you might have learnt to look differently on the past.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Silence!&quot; interrupted Sandow. &quot;Name it not! The past has no existence,
+shall have no existence for me. I buried it when I left Europe for
+ever.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And the recollection of it too!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly! and I will not have it recalled by others. You have already
+attempted it several times in your letters, and I imagined my dislike
+to the subject had been shown plainly enough. Why do you always return
+to it? Is it to distress me, or&quot;--here he fixed a threatening,
+penetrating look on his brother--&quot;does some scheme lie at the bottom of
+this persistency?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave shrugged his shoulders slightly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why should you think that? I asked in my own interests. Since the
+question of inheritance is now before us, you can easily understand the
+motive.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Decidedly. You have become uncommonly practical I see, and it is much
+better for you to have become so without paying the heavy price for
+your experience which mine has cost me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave became suddenly serious, and laid his hand on his brother's
+arm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Frank, a heavy price it must indeed have been, since it has made
+you another man. I do not find a single trace of what you were at
+home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow laughed bitterly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, thank God! there is not much left of the soft-hearted fool who
+lived for every one, who trusted every one, and in the end must pay the
+price of his blind faith like a criminal. Whenever that blind
+confidence has cost a man, as it has me, honour, happiness, nay,
+existence itself, he will for the future manage his affairs after a
+different fashion. But now, not another word of the past. I have cast
+it from me; let it rest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dinner is ready,&quot; announced a servant, throwing open the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The brothers rose; the turn the conversation had taken made any
+interruption welcome to both. They entered the adjoining dining-room,
+where Jessie already awaited them. Gustave had in a moment regained his
+usual manner. He approached the young lady and offered her his arm as
+if nothing in the world had come between them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Miss Clifford, I have the honour to introduce myself as a volunteer in
+the house of Clifford and Company. I may, therefore, now regard you as
+my second chief, and respectfully offer you my humble services.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And without paying any attention to the frigid manner of his second
+chief, he took the arm which Jessie did not dare to refuse, and led her
+to the table.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="continue">The house of Clifford, as already hinted, was one of the most important
+in the town. The numerous staff of clerks and attendants, and the
+constant activity which reigned there, betrayed even to a stranger the
+importance of the great mercantile house, whose head, indeed, held a
+most conspicuous place in the commercial world. Gustave Sandow, who,
+though now holding the modest post of a volunteer, was destined later
+to share that dignity, had now entered on his new calling, but showed
+so far very little enthusiasm for it. His brother noticed with great
+displeasure that he looked on the whole thing as a kind of
+entertainment with which he amused himself, and of which the chief
+attraction was its novelty. He allowed little indeed to be seen of the
+austere dignity of the future partner, while he made extensive use of
+his freedom as a volunteer. The various objects of interest in the
+town, its environs, its society, seemed far more attractive to him than
+his brother's office. The latter remarked on it in his usual sharp
+manner, and requested that more interest might be shown in business
+matters.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave acknowledged in every respect the justice of his brother's
+observations, but continued as regularly to do what pleased him best,
+and offered to all reproaches the declaration that at present he was
+only a guest, and must be allowed to make himself at home in his new
+surroundings.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Between himself and Miss Clifford had arisen a curious, half
+antagonistic, half confidential relation. On the whole they were always
+prepared for war, and Jessie did her best to maintain that state of
+affairs. But it was difficult enough, for her adversary displayed such
+unwearying politeness and amiability as left her few occasions for the
+contrary. The certainly not very flattering estimate of his character
+which had been forced upon him in the very first hour of their
+acquaintanceship had obviously affected him very little. On his side he
+was full of attentions, with which he managed to mingle very adroitly
+the friendly confidence of a household companion, and Jessie saw with
+horror the courtship from which she had considered herself entirely
+free deliberately unfolded before her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was morning, about a week after the arrival of the new acquaintance.
+Breakfast was just over. Gustave was giving Miss Clifford a sketch of
+some of his travelling experiences, which he did with such sparkling
+animation and such vivid colouring as enchained Jessie's attention
+against her will.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow, on the other hand, was occupied in looking for some business
+papers in his pocket-book, and listened only with half an ear.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When his brother had finished, he said satirically--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;One would really believe that you had undertaken the journey merely to
+find materials for some future article on the political or artistic
+views entertained here. Landscape, architecture, national life, you
+have lost no opportunities of studying, but the business you should
+have made the main interest is scarcely alluded to. You certainly went
+everywhere that my introductions would take you, but seem only to have
+dined with the firms and talked about politics afterwards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You surely did not expect us to take our business to table with us!&quot;
+cried Gustave. &quot;That is a pleasure which only you provide for your
+guests. I believe you would hail it as a most blessed discovery if
+eating and sleeping could be dispensed with altogether. What an
+incalculable gain in hours of business for much-tormented mankind!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie cast a half terrified glance at her guardian. She knew that this
+was a very tender point with him. Gustave knew it too, yet every day he
+ventured on such remarks to his face. He understood most perfectly how
+to parry the masterful and sometimes offensive manner of his brother,
+so that he never allowed himself to appear corrected or in any way
+subordinate.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow, whose strength did not lie in repartee, generally quitted the
+field when he began in that tone of mockery. So he now rose, and,
+closing his pocket-book, sarcastically replied--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, you certainly do not belong to the much-tormented class; you
+take your life easily enough. But I want to speak to you for a few
+minutes in my room before we go to the office. It concerns the New York
+affair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will come immediately,&quot; returned his brother, who, however, remained
+calmly seated while the other left the room, and then, turning to
+Jessie, asked--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have you ever seen such a business maniac as my brother, Miss
+Clifford? At breakfast he makes business notes, at dinner he reads the
+money article, and I am convinced that he speculates in his dreams.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, he possesses a most untiring activity,&quot; replied Jessie, &quot;and he
+looks for the same thing in other people. You should not keep him
+waiting, for I am sure he wants to speak to you particularly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave paid not the least attention to this broad hint to depart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It concerns Jenkins and Co. That agreeable firm actually besieges us
+with letters and telegrams respecting a common speculation. I am not at
+all in a hurry to talk about it, and my brother is very considerate
+when he knows I am with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">That was unquestionably the case. For various reasons Sandow favoured
+in every way the growing intimacy between his brother and his ward, and
+even would go so far as to forgive a want of punctuality occasionally.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The hint to this effect was, however, very ungraciously received by the
+young lady. She thought best to maintain perfect silence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Besides that, I have a great desire to speak to you alone,&quot; continued
+Gustave. &quot;For several days I have sought an opportunity in vain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">An icy, long-drawn &quot;Indeed!&quot; was the only reply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">So really after an acquaintanceship of scarcely a week, this man dared
+to approach her with his proposals, in spite of her distant demeanour,
+her plainly shown aversion. In spite of all he would try to complete
+the business contract which gave him the hand of the rich heiress, and
+still worse, with an easy assurance as if undeniably in the right.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have a petition to offer,&quot; he began afresh, &quot;a petition which, by
+granting you will make me for ever your debtor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Miss Clifford looked as if carved out of stone, and her manner left no
+doubt that she had not the slightest intention of placing him &quot;for ever
+in her debt.&quot; She summoned all her energies together to meet the
+approaching emergency with the necessary decision.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave paid not the least attention to her, and continued with his
+usual genial smile--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It concerns a young countrywoman of mine!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A--young countrywoman?&quot; repeated Jessie, astonished to the last degree
+at the unexpected turn which the conversation had taken.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, a young German who came over in the same ship with me. She was
+going quite alone to a relative in New York, who had offered the orphan
+a home with him. On landing, however, she learnt that he had died a few
+days before, and the poor child found herself quite unprotected and
+forsaken in the New World.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You took charge of her,&quot; remarked Jessie, with a certain sharpness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly; I took her to a German family, where she could be received
+for a few days. But she cannot stay there long, and it must be a very
+difficult thing for a girl of scarcely sixteen, and without an
+introduction, to find a situation as governess or companion. Here in
+this town it might be more feasible, especially if a well-known house
+such as yours undertook to introduce her. My petition is this, will you
+receive this young girl for a few weeks as a guest till something may
+be found for her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Generally Jessie was only too ready to help whenever it lay in her
+power, and a countrywoman of her mother's had naturally every claim
+upon her sympathy, but the side from which the demand came caused it to
+fill her with the darkest suspicions. In her eyes Gustave Sandow was
+not the man to help any fellow-creature from pure philanthropy. Such an
+egoist must certainly have other motives for his actions, and she
+returned a very cautious answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This takes me quite by surprise. I am to receive a total stranger,
+who, as you acknowledge, is entirely destitute of introductions?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I undertake the responsibility,&quot; cried Gustave eagerly. &quot;Any security
+you can desire I will give.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, indeed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A light began to dawn upon her. She saw the dreaded offer vanish into
+the distance. A way of escape which she had never thought of suddenly
+opened before her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You seem to know your protégée very thoroughly, Mr. Sandow, and to
+take an extraordinary interest in her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly I do. Towards an orphan that is the duty of every
+Christian.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I was not aware that you were such a good Christian,&quot; said Jessie,
+with unconcealed irony.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then, Miss Clifford, you have misunderstood me in that as in so many
+other respects. Where humanity is concerned my opinions are in the
+highest degree Christian,&quot; declared Sandow solemnly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie's lips curled scornfully at the word &quot;humanity,&quot; but the thing
+began to interest her, so she asked--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then you wish for an invitation to our house for&quot;--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Miss Frida Palm, that is her name.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will speak to my guardian about it, and if he is willing&quot;--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! pray do not; that is just what I am most anxious to avoid,&quot;
+interrupted Gustave. &quot;I do not wish my brother to know anything of my
+appeal to you. Would it not be possible to give out that Miss Palm is a
+protégée of your own, recommended by some New York acquaintance, and
+whom you have agreed to receive? The suggestion is rather singular, I
+see that in your manner, so I place myself and my petition entirely in
+your hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie's manner certainly showed how surprised she was. She bent on the
+speaker a long, searching look.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed, a very extraordinary demand. You really ask that we should
+literally perform a comedy, in order that you may gain a point with my
+guardian! With what object?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly with no bad object, even if for the present that must remain
+my secret.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your secret is not hard to guess, at least for me,&quot; said Jessie
+sarcastically, but still with a feeling of intense relief at the turn
+things had taken. &quot;Only acknowledge openly that your interest in this
+young lady is a much deeper and more serious one than appears, and that
+you have a decided object to gain in bringing her here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Apparently overwhelmed, Gustave drooped his head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I acknowledge it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And for more than one reason you fear that your brother will be
+opposed to this interest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I allow that too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Therefore Miss Palm is to appear unacknowledged in our house, that,
+through her personal qualities she may gain sympathy and consideration,
+until you may venture to declare the truth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Miss Clifford, you have incredible penetration,&quot; said Gustave, in the
+tone of deepest admiration. &quot;It is quite impossible to hide anything
+from you. Now that you have so completely seen through me, may I reckon
+on your support?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young lady assumed a very dignified manner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have never yet condescended to an untruth, and would never do it
+if&quot;--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She stopped, and a passing blush tinged her cheek.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If it were not for certain plans of my brother's,&quot; added Gustave. &quot;You
+do not agree with them; that I saw on the day of my arrival. But just
+on that account you need not fear that I have any doubt as to the
+reasons of your confederacy. They are certainly not flattering to me,
+but in this instance decidedly advantageous.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Advantageous!&quot; echoed Jessie, in a contemptuous tone. &quot;Quite right;
+that is sufficient for you. You fear a breach with your brother if you
+make a choice without his consent, and, as far as I know him, this
+would be the case since your choice has fallen on a poor and friendless
+orphan. It is certainly advantageous if you try to gain your end by
+circuitous means. But how much more manly it would be to go to your
+brother and openly declare your love, bidding defiance to his anger.
+But on such points our ideas are quite opposed. Let Miss Palm know that
+I shall expect her. She can start immediately on receiving your
+letter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is not at all necessary,&quot; replied Gustave calmly. &quot;I have already
+written to her; she is on her way, and this afternoon will arrive
+here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This was rather too strong for Jessie. She looked at the daring visitor
+with disdain.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So that was already decided. You are very considerate, Mr. Sandow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I reckoned on your good heart,&quot; he assured her, with a deep bow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You reckoned far more on your brother's plans, which have, half
+against my will, made me your confederate. So be it then. I will do my
+best to afford you the advantage of maintaining a good understanding
+with your brother. As soon as your fiancée arrives, bring her to me,
+and for the present she shall pass as my protégée.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And, with a very cold and distant bow, Jessie swept from the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave looked after her with a very peculiar smile on his lips.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Every inch contempt! But it suits her splendidly. Certainly I play a
+very pitiful part in the story; that, however, is nothing; if Frida can
+only make good her footing in the house, that is the point.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In her room Jessie walked about in violent excitement. She was really
+rejoiced that the dreaded suitor should in this way prove himself
+perfectly harmless, and that he himself lent a hand to the destruction
+of the hated marriage scheme; but that did not in the least diminish
+her indignation at the selfishness and avarice of the man who had
+displayed anew all the meanness of his character. Yet he loved, this
+man, and apparently truly and disinterestedly. Just on the way to the
+wealthy, unloved bride, whom his brother had so carefully selected for
+him, a young, forsaken, unprotected orphan had succeeded in awakening a
+real affection in his heart. What hindered him, then, from introducing
+his chosen bride to his brother? And if Sandow really showed himself
+obstinate and unreasonable, he might then return with her to Germany.
+He had occupied an independent position there, which would be
+immediately open to him again, and which would permit him to marry
+without the consent of his brother. But then his chance of that
+brother's wealth would be in jeopardy, and at any price that rich
+inheritance must be secured. Therefore the affianced bride must be
+content to play the part of a stranger, all kinds of underhand modes of
+gaining his end would be attempted, and a regular intrigue set on foot
+in order to wheedle the rich brother to consent, and if, in spite of
+all, he persisted in a decided refusal--and Jessie knew that her
+guardian, who always measured men by the length of their purses, would
+never welcome a poor sister-in-law--then, no doubt, the daring champion
+of the Ideal would choose the money, and leave the bride in the lurch,
+as he had already deserted his profession.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie's frank and open disposition rose in rebellion against the part
+forced on her; yet she felt it necessary to forward this union by every
+means in her power. She would at any cost avoid a serious struggle with
+her guardian. It was to a certain extent an act of necessity if she
+agreed to the proposal. Should they really succeed in gaining Sandow's
+consent then the threatening storm would pass completely away.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was remarkable that the one thing in Gustave's favour--his evident
+capacity for true love--was also the one thing most obnoxious to
+Jessie. She had so bitterly reproached him for yielding so
+unresistingly to the business calculations of his brother, and now,
+when she learnt that in his heart he had thwarted, and wished entirely
+to defeat those plans, she was more prejudiced against him than ever.
+She was thoroughly convinced that this man was only worthy of contempt,
+and that she felt sure of always, and under all circumstances,
+bestowing upon him.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="continue">Meanwhile Gustave Sandow had mounted to the higher story, where were
+situated his brother's private apartments.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I began to think you would not condescend to come at all,&quot; was the
+remark, delivered in his sharpest and most unpleasant tone, with which
+he greeted the dilatory Gustave.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I was talking to Miss Clifford,&quot; replied Gustave, as if fully aware
+that that fact would completely justify him. &quot;It was impossible to
+break off our interesting conversation sooner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The allusion did not fail of its effect. The projected marriage was too
+important to Sandow, and his ward's disinclination to it, too well
+known to him, to allow him to throw the slightest hindrance in the way
+of his brother's courtship. He therefore replied more graciously--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I suppose it was one of your usual altercations; you amuse yourselves
+with this continual wrangling; but I do not find that you make much
+progress with Jessie. She is more reserved than ever towards you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Frank, you cannot judge of my progress,&quot;, said Gustave, with an
+injured air. &quot;It is considerable I assure you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We will hope so,&quot; replied Sandow, significantly, &quot;and now to business.
+I want to talk to you of the affair, which I, and some business friends
+in New York contemplate taking in hand together. Jenkins tells me he
+has already spoken of it to you, and yesterday I gave you the
+correspondence to look over, so you must now be pretty well up in the
+subject.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Decidedly I am.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave had all at once become serious, and the answer rang quite
+differently from his usual cheerful, careless tone. Sandow took no
+notice of the change, but continued--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You know we possess in the West large districts which are not yet
+settled. The purchase was to be made under extremely advantageous
+circumstances; but the extent of territory was so enormous that Jenkins
+was not able to complete it with his own means alone. He therefore
+applied to me and won me over to his views. We were fortunate in
+obtaining the land for a very moderate sum, and what now concerns us is
+to have it occupied advantageously. This can only be done by
+colonisation, and German colonisation in particular seems most
+suitable. We have prepared all the necessary notices, and intend now to
+begin seriously.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only one question,&quot; said Gustave, interrupting the dry business-like
+narration. &quot;Have you any personal knowledge of your possessions?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, I should not undertake such an extensive business without full
+information. Naturally I know all about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So do I,&quot; said Gustave laconically.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow started and drew back a step.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You! How? When? Is it possible?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly, and in the most simple manner. Mr. Jenkins, whom I looked
+up in New York at your express wish, explained to me when the
+conversation fell on this subject, that you reckoned greatly on me, or
+rather on my pen. I therefore held it necessary to make myself
+thoroughly acquainted with the whole affair. That was really the cause
+of my late arrival, and of my 'pleasure tour,' as you called it. Before
+all, I wished to know where my country people were to be sent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow knitted his brows gloomily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;All this trouble was quite superfluous. We are not in the habit of
+going to work in such a circumstantial manner. But what seems to me
+very remarkable is, that you should have been here a whole week without
+giving me the slightest hint of your journey. But never mind. We
+certainly reckon much on you and your literary connections. Our agents
+will do their best, but that is not enough. People have become very
+suspicious about agents, and the outlay has been too great to let us
+run any risks. Our great wish is that one of the great influential
+German papers which stands above all suspicion of a puff, should open
+the subject in our interest. It is true that you are no longer on the
+staff of the <i>K--sche Zeitung</i>; but they regret having lost you, and
+would gladly receive your contributions from America. A series of
+articles written in your eloquent and brilliant style would secure our
+success, and if you use your other literary connections skilfully so as
+to make the thing widely known, there is no doubt that in a few years a
+great German emigration will take place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave had listened in silence without offering the least
+interruption; but now he raised his eyes and fixed them earnestly on
+his brother's face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You forget one trifle, which is that your territory is totally unfit
+for colonisation. The land lies as unfavourably as possible, the
+climate is in the highest degree unhealthy, indeed, in some seasons
+deadly. The soil is unproductive, and to the most gigantic efforts
+returns only the smallest results. All the aids of skilful cultivation
+are utterly wasted, and the few settlers who are scattered here and
+there are sunk in sickness and misery. They are exposed, utterly
+defenceless, to the rigour of the most cruel elements, and those who
+might follow them from Europe would share the same fate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow listened with ever-growing surprise, and at first words failed
+him, at last he exclaimed angrily--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What absurd exaggerations! Who has put such ideas into your head, and
+how can an utter stranger judge of such circumstances? What can you
+know of it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have made the strictest inquiries on the spot. My information is
+authentic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nonsense! And if it were what have I to do with it? Do you think that
+you, who have scarcely been a week in the counting-house, can give me
+instructions in the management of my speculations?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly not! But when such a speculation costs the life and health
+of thousands we are accustomed to call it by a different name.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;By what name?&quot; asked Sandow, threateningly, advancing close to his
+brother.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave would not be intimidated, but replied firmly--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Knavery!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gustave!&quot; cried Sandow furiously, &quot;you dare&quot;--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Naturally that word applies only to Mr. Jenkins. The remarkable
+attention with which that honourable personage received me, the
+constant sounding of my praises, the popularity of my name, and the
+brilliant success of my pen, which were to work wonders here as they
+had done at home--all this roused my suspicions and induced me to
+undertake the journey. You don't know the place, Frank, or at all
+events have only glanced superficially at it. But now that I have
+opened your eyes you will seek for the proof of my assertions, and let
+the whole thing drop.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow did not seem much disposed to profit by the means of escape
+which his brother offered to him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who says I shall?&quot; asked he harshly. &quot;Do you think I can give up
+without an effort the hundreds of thousands already invested there,
+merely because you have some sentimental objections to urge. The land
+is as good or as bad as in many other districts, and the immigrants
+have to struggle with climate and soil everywhere. These difficulties
+will be easily overcome by perseverance. It would not be the first
+German colony which had flourished under most unfavourable
+circumstances.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;After hundreds and thousands had been ruined! That is enriching
+foreign soil with German blood at too great a cost.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow bit his lips; he evidently controlled himself with difficulty,
+and his voice was hoarse and stifled as he replied.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What business had you to go there on your own account? Such
+exaggerated conscientiousness is here quite misplaced, and also quite
+useless. And if I did not accept Jenkins' offer there are plenty of
+others who would; and I must acknowledge that he applied to me first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;First to you--a German--that was certainly a sign of remarkable
+respect from an American.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was singular that the same man who a quarter of an hour before, had
+shown himself so anxious to conceal the choice of his heart from his
+austere brother, since it might displease him, now boldly defied him,
+under circumstances in which he could not be so profoundly interested.
+Sandow, though ignorant of his conversation with Jessie, was astonished
+to the highest degree at this conduct.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You seem to be now playing the part of moral hero,&quot; said he with
+bitter sarcasm; &quot;that does not suit very well with the extremely
+material motives which brought you here. You should have first made
+things clear to yourself. If you want a share in my house you must set
+its interest before everything, and in that interest I require you to
+write this article, and take care that it appears in a suitable place.
+Do you hear, Gustave? Under any circumstances you will do that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To bring my countrymen here to rot in that swamp of fever and misery!
+No.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Consider the subject well before you give such a decided refusal,&quot;
+warned Sandow with an icy calm, under which lay a half-concealed
+threat. &quot;It is the first demand I make on you; if you fail me now, any
+future accommodation is impossible. It is quite in my power to draw
+back from the proposed arrangement; think of that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Frank, you would not force me&quot;--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I force you to nothing; I only explain to you that we part if you
+persist in your refusal. If you are prepared for the consequences, well
+and good. I hold to my conditions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He bent over his writing table, and took from it some papers which he
+placed in his pocket-book. Gustave stood silently by, his eyes fixed on
+the floor, a dark cloud on his brow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Just at the moment when Frida is on her way here,&quot; murmured he.
+&quot;Impossible. I cannot sacrifice that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well?&quot; asked Sandow, turning to him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Give me time for consideration. The thing has come so suddenly, so
+unexpectedly. I will think it over.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The elder brother was quite contented with this partial submission; he
+had certainly not doubted that his threat would produce its effect.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good! a week sooner or later does not matter. I hope you will have
+sense to see that one must act according to circumstances. But come
+now, it is high time that we were at the office. And once more,
+Gustave, give yourself up to my guidance for the future, and undertake
+no more extravagances like this journey. You see, it only gives rise to
+differences between us, and increases the difficulties of your
+position.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Decidedly,&quot; said Gustave, half aloud, while he prepared to follow his
+brother. &quot;My position is tolerably difficult, worse than I had
+anticipated.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was afternoon of the same day, and Jessie awaited with some anxiety
+and a great deal of curiosity the arrival of the young visitor. Gustave
+had told her in the morning that he should try to leave business
+earlier than usual, in order to meet Miss Palm at the station, and
+bring her to the house before his brother came home. At the appointed
+hour, then, he entered the drawing-room, leading a young girl.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Miss Frida Palm,&quot; said he, introducing her. &quot;My protégée, from this
+moment <i>our</i> protégée, since you are so good as to afford her an asylum
+in your house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie felt painfully impressed by this mode of introduction. So he did
+not even venture to introduce the girl to her as his betrothed.
+&quot;Protégée,&quot; that was a word open to so many interpretations. He
+intended evidently to leave himself a means of retreat, should his
+brother show himself unyielding. Miss Clifford pitied with her whole
+heart the young creature who had given herself to such an egoist, and
+consequently her reception was warmer than she had at first intended.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are very welcome, Miss Palm,&quot; said she kindly; &quot;I have heard all
+about you, and you may confide yourself to me without fear. I am not
+accustomed to neglect my protégées.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The &quot;I&quot; was slightly but distinctly accented, but he, at whom the
+remark was directed, remained, alas, totally unmoved. He seemed
+extremely pleased that his plan had succeeded, and the young stranger
+replied in a low, rather trembling voice--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are very kind, Miss Clifford, and I only hope that I may deserve
+your goodness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie placed her visitor beside her, and while the usual remarks on
+the weather, her journey, and arrival were made, she took the
+opportunity of examining her more closely. She was certainly a very
+young girl, almost a child, who had evidently scarcely reached her
+sixteenth year, but the delicate childish features bore an expression
+of seriousness and decision, astonishing at such an age. The large,
+dark eyes generally rested on the ground, but when they were raised for
+a moment, they gave a glance full of shyness and restraint which suited
+ill with the energetic features. The dark hair was simply drawn back
+from her face, and the deep mourning dress made the young stranger
+appear even paler than she naturally was.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are an orphan?&quot; asked Jessie, with a glance at the dress.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I lost my mother six months ago,&quot; was the short, touching answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">That touched a kindred string in Jessie's bosom. She still mourned too
+for her beloved parents, and by the recollection came an expression of
+pain in her face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In that our fates are alike. I am an orphan too, and it is only a year
+since my father was torn from me. Yours is, no doubt, much longer
+dead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The girl's lips trembled, and she replied almost inaudibly--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In my childhood. I scarcely knew him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Poor child,&quot; said Jessie, with overflowing sympathy. &quot;It must indeed
+be sad to stand so alone and desolate in the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! I am not desolate. I have found a protector, the noblest and best
+of men!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In these words lay a truly affecting devotion, and the look which at
+the same moment was cast upon Gustave, betrayed an almost enthusiastic
+gratitude; the latter, however, received it all with enraging
+indifference, with the air of a sultan, as Jessie angrily considered.
+He appeared to look upon it as a richly deserved compliment, and
+replied in his usual jesting manner--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You see, Miss Clifford, what my reputation with Frida is. I should be
+happy if you would come round to this opinion too, which, alas, I dare
+not hope.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie ignored this remark. To her the manner in which he received the
+devotion of his future wife, and treated it as a subject for jesting
+was quite revolting, and she returned to Miss Palm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At present I must welcome you alone. You do not yet know my guardian,
+but in a short time you will meet him, and I hope with all my heart
+that you will succeed in gaining his sympathy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida made no reply; she looked in the same timid manner at the
+speaker, and then dumbly at the ground. Jessie was rather surprised at
+this strange reception of her kindly meant words, but Gustave joined in
+the conversation, with the remark--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At first you must have great consideration for Frida. It will be
+difficult for her to accustom herself to her new surroundings, and the
+part which she is forced to play in the house oppresses and terrifies
+her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Forced at your desire!&quot; Jessie could not refrain from adding.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, that cannot now be altered. At all events she knows the
+conditions, and also that there is no other way of reaching our end.
+Frida, you confide entirely in me, don't you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Instead of answering, Frida stretched her hand towards him, with an
+expression which would have excused any lover for pressing the little
+hand to his lips. But this one calmly held it in his own, nodded
+protectingly, and said--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I was sure of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will do all in my power to relieve what is painful in your
+position,&quot; said Jessie, reassuringly. &quot;And now may I keep you with me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We had better wait till to-morrow,&quot; said Gustave. &quot;It would very much
+surprise my brother to find a complete stranger, of whose arrival he
+had not even been warned, established as a member of his household.
+That might at once arouse his suspicions. It would be better for Frida
+to return to the hotel where I stopped with her and left her things. In
+the course of the evening some opportunity of speaking of her is sure
+to arise, and then the removal can be effected without any trouble.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie was annoyed at the suggestion, in proportion as she recognized
+its justice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are incredibly prudent, Mr. Sandow! I really admire all these
+precautions, and this clever calculation of all possible emergencies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave bowed as if he had really received a compliment.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes, Frida,&quot; said he, in reply to the look of surprise with which
+the girl listened to this perpetual bickering. &quot;Miss Clifford and I
+have an excessive mutual admiration. You see already, what great
+respect we show each other. But now it is time to start, or my brother
+will surprise us here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida rose obediently. Jessie felt a deep sympathy with the poor girl
+who resigned herself so completely to the selfish plans of her lover,
+and bade her a hearty farewell.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave accompanied Miss Palm to the carriage, which waited to take her
+back to the hotel; but just as they were descending the steps a second
+carriage drove up, and Sandow, whose office hours were now over,
+stepped out.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My brother,&quot; said Gustave in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Miss Palm must have stood greatly in awe of this terrible brother, for
+she suddenly turned deadly pale, and made an involuntary movement as if
+to fly, while the arm which rested in her companion's trembled
+violently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Frida!&quot; said the latter, in an earnest, reproachful tone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida struggled for composure, but her timidity this time was not the
+cause of her agitation. It was not the look of a startled dove which
+met the new arrival, but one in which lay gloomy, almost wild
+resistance, and the energetic side of her nature was shown so
+distinctly in her features that it seemed as if she were rather
+beginning a struggle with a dreaded enemy than trying to conciliate
+him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow had meanwhile entered, and met the pair face to face in the
+vestibule. He bowed slightly, but seemed surprised to see his brother
+accompanied by a perfect stranger.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida returned the greeting, but instead of stopping hastened anxiously
+forwards, and thus prevented the possibility of an introduction.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave saw that it would be useless to try to effect it, so placed her
+in the carriage, closed the door, and directed the coachman to the
+hotel.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who is that girl?&quot; asked Sandow, who had waited for his brother.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A certain Miss Palm,&quot; said he lightly, &quot;an acquaintance of Miss
+Clifford's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And to whom you act as cavalier.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not at all; my service is paid to Miss Clifford. At her wish, I
+fetched the young lady, in whom she is much interested, from the
+station, and brought her here. You know I left the office earlier than
+usual.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, indeed! Are you already on such good terms with Jessie that she
+entrusts you with such commissions?&quot; said Sandow, much gratified to
+find his brother had made such decided progress, while they re-ascended
+the stairs and walked along the corridor together.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As they entered the drawing-room, Gustave took the thing promptly in
+hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My brother has already seen your protégée, Miss Clifford,&quot; he began.
+&quot;We met him in the hall.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who is this new acquaintance, Jessie?&quot; asked Sandow, with an interest
+not usual to him. &quot;I have heard nothing about her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie felt now, when the moment for the first equivocation had
+arrived, the whole weight of the responsibility she had undertaken;
+however, she had gone too far to be able to draw back. She returned
+hesitatingly,</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She is a young German, who has been strongly recommended to me from
+New York. She has come here to look for a situation as companion, and I
+thought--I wished&quot;--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, you have gone pretty far,&quot; interrupted Gustave. &quot;This Miss Palm
+seems to have taken your sympathies by storm; just think, Frank, Miss
+Clifford has offered her her own house, and seriously intends to give
+her to us for a companion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie cast an indignant glance at him, but was obliged to accept the
+proffered help.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have certainly invited Miss Palm for a few weeks,&quot; she said. &quot;At
+least, if you have no objection, Uncle Sandow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I,&quot; said the latter absently, while his eyes already sought the
+evening papers, which lay on the table on the garden terrace. &quot;You
+know, I never interfere in your domestic concerns. No doubt you would
+like a companion for a time, and if this young girl has been well
+recommended, pray arrange the affair as you like.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With this he stepped on to the terrace and seized the newspaper.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I saw that I must come to your help, Miss Clifford,&quot; said Gustave
+aside to Jessie. &quot;You are evidently very inexperienced in deception.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You seem to think it a reproach,&quot; said Jessie, in a voice equally low,
+but trembling with anger. &quot;Certainly I have not yet brought the art to
+such perfection as you have.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! that will come in time,&quot; said Gustave encouragingly. &quot;When you are
+in difficulties that way, only turn to me. I am quite at home there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gustave, have you read the evening papers yet?&quot; came from Sandow on
+the terrace. &quot;The German Exchange is very lively; prices are rising
+considerably. Here is your own journal; you will find a notice of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah! prices are rising? really?&quot; asked Gustave, stepping on to the
+terrace and taking the German paper which his brother offered him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow immediately buried himself in another sheet, and so did not see
+the air of sovereign contempt with which Gustave turned over the page
+containing the money article, and bestowed his whole attention upon the
+leading article, which was upon the political situation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie followed him with her eyes, and, as she beheld him bending so
+eagerly over what she supposed to be the money article, she curled her
+lip contemptuously, and thought--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That poor, poor child! What will be her lot at the side of such an
+egoist?&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="continue">Gustave's scheme, which was imagined and carried out with equal skill,
+had now been realized. The entrance of the young stranger into the
+family took place the next day, but so easily and naturally was it
+managed, that Sandow had not the faintest suspicion of anything
+unusual. But Frida was, and remained, a stranger in the strange house,
+however hard and determined the struggle to appear at ease, and to show
+her gratitude for the protection afforded her. Perhaps the unaccustomed
+splendour of her surroundings oppressed her, for unquestionably they
+stood out in sharpest contrast to her former life. She remained silent
+and self-contained, and all the kindness with which Jessie received her
+did not succeed in thawing her shy reserve.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Miss Clifford tried in vain to learn more of the family circumstances
+and former life of the girl; Frida seemed purposely to avoid any such
+conversations, and even the warm and freely displayed sympathy of the
+other failed to draw from her one word of confidence. That naturally
+tended to estrange Jessie, especially as she soon discovered that the
+stranger by no means belonged to those gentle natures which tremble
+away from all that is strange or painful. On the contrary, Frida often
+unconsciously betrayed a very energetic will, a repressed but profound
+passion. And yet this slavish subjection and obedience to another's
+will; it was incomprehensible.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave played his part far more successfully. He showed himself in his
+brother's presence polite, but with the politeness of a perfect
+stranger. Not a word, not the slightest sign, betrayed any mental
+understanding, or even suggested a closer acquaintance than appeared;
+never for one moment did he lose his self-control. He seemed still more
+agreeable and high-spirited than ever, and all Jessie's attempts to
+make him feel her contempt met with such a ready sarcasm that she
+invariably quitted the field.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow himself took little notice of Frida. Generally he showed little
+attention or interest in household matters. The greater part of the day
+was passed in town at the office, and the morning and evening hours,
+which were spent in the villa, instead of being dedicated to relaxation
+or amusement, were devoted to business occupations in his own rooms.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He saw Frida only at table, and treated her with careless civility, and
+on her side there was no approach to a closer acquaintance, though she
+was there precisely with that object. But either she possessed no skill
+in that direction, or her obedience failed just where it was needed to
+fulfil her task. At all events, she and the man in whose house she was
+living were as strange to each other at the end of a week as they had
+been on her first arrival.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The two gentlemen had just returned from town, and the whole party were
+seated at table. Gustave, who as usual bore the chief weight of the
+conversation, was amusing the ladies by describing in the most
+enjoyable manner, a scene which had taken place in the office during
+the afternoon. Sandow, who could not endure anything which concerned
+business to be turned into ridicule, put in a few contradictory
+remarks, but his brother continued to entertain his listeners with an
+account of the certainly comical misunderstanding.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I assure you it was incomparable, the excitement of this zealous agent
+of Jenkins and Co., who had come at full speed from New York, and
+persisted in taking me for a would-be settler, thirsting for a farm. He
+would have dragged mo by force to the other end of the world, that I
+might be made the happy possessor of a piece of land, and looked the
+picture of despair when my brother entered and put an end to the
+misunderstanding.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You brought it on yourself,&quot; said Sandow angrily. &quot;You drove the man
+so into a corner with your endless questions that it was only natural
+that he should fall into the mistake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do I look like an intending farmer?&quot; cried Gustave. &quot;It is the first
+time in my life that any one has discovered in me an enthusiasm for
+spade and hoe. It would be, at all events, a fresh field of activity
+which I might attempt. I am only afraid that I should be worth still
+less there than at the office.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That would be difficult,&quot; said Sandow drily, but his brother only
+laughed at the implication, and observed to Miss Clifford that it was
+really incomprehensible how little recognition his valuable services at
+the desk received from any quarter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida had become attentive during the last dialogue. Usually she never
+joined uninvited in the conversation, but this time she listened with
+breathless interest, and then turned to Gustave with the question--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Jenkins and Co., the great firm in New York which is now sending out
+advertisements and agents for the German emigration?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite right, Miss Palm,&quot; said Gustave. &quot;Is the firm known to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not to me; I was only a few weeks in New York, but it was often spoken
+of in the German family where I lived. People spoke of it with much
+doubt, and considered it a misfortune that Jenkins should have drawn
+this also within the circle of his speculations.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why? Does he not bear a good reputation?&quot; asked Gustave, with apparent
+indifference.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That must be the case. They say he is the most unprincipled
+speculator, and has become rich through all kinds of dishonourable
+means, and would not for a moment hesitate to sacrifice to his avarice
+the welfare of all who confide in him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie sat in painful confusion while listening to this unsuspecting
+remark. However ignorant she might be of the business affairs, she was
+aware, from many allusions, that her guardian had commercial
+intercourse with this firm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow bit his lip, and was about to turn the conversation, when his
+brother said emphatically--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You must have been misinformed, Miss Palm. Jenkins and Co. belong to
+our business circle; indeed, we have done business with them for
+years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida turned pale. It was not embarrassment, but perfect horror that
+her features expressed, as if she could not, would not, believe what
+she had just heard.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Now Sandow took up the conversation, and said in his sharpest tone--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You see, Miss Palm, how painful it may be when one believes such evil
+reports, and repeats them too. My brother is quite right. Mr. Jenkins
+is, and has long been, a business friend of mine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then I beg pardon; I had no idea of it,&quot; said Frida softly, but her
+pallor became more deadly, and suddenly she opened wide and full her
+dark eyes on the man before whom she had always shyly sunk them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was something singular in these great dark eyes, something like a
+fearful doubt, an anxious question, and Sandow seemed to feel it, the
+proud, stiff-necked merchant, who bore no opposition, and had crushed
+to the ground all the efforts of his brother; he could not support this
+look. He turned hastily away, seized his glass, and emptied it at a
+draught.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A painful silence, which lasted some moments, followed. Jessie tried at
+last to start another subject, and Gustave supported her to the best of
+his ability, but the attempt flagged.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow appeared unable to master his vexation. Frida sat speechless,
+and looked at her plate. It was a relief to all when the meal was over.
+The ladies left the room, and Gustave was just following them when his
+brother called him back.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What do you really think of this Miss Palm?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is hard to say. I have not spoken much with her; she seems very
+shy and reserved.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To judge by her appearance certainly, but I do not believe in it. In
+her eyes lies something far removed from shyness. Singular eyes! I have
+seen them distinctly to-day for the first time, and try in vain to
+remember where I have met them before. The girl has only just come to
+America?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;About a month ago, I heard from Miss Clifford.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I remember Jessie told me so. And yet there is something familiar in
+those features, though I cannot recall what it is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave examined closely the expression of his brother's face, while
+with apparent carelessness he replied--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps it is a passing likeness which you observe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Likeness--with whom?&quot; asked Sandow earnestly, while he supported his
+head on his hand, and lost in deepest meditation looked before him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">All at once he arose, and, as if angry with himself at such involuntary
+interest, said--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Her remark at dinner was singularly wanting in tact.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She was certainly quite innocent of any ill intention. She could have
+had no suspicion of your connection with Jenkins, or she would have
+been silent. She just repeated what she had heard. You see what a
+reputation your 'friend' bears.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow shrugged his shoulders contemptuously.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;With whom? With a few sentimental Germans, who have brought their
+narrow, provincial ideas from Europe with them, and are determined not
+to see that our commerce rests on quite other grounds. Whoever will be
+successful here must dare; and quite differently from in Europe, where
+people are still swayed by trivial circumstances. Clifford was one of
+the anxious and timid ones. I have had hard work enough to drive him
+forwards. Hence, up to the time of my arrival, he lived in very
+moderate circumstances; it was only when the guidance of the business
+fell into my hands that he became a rich man, and the firm entered the
+ranks of the best in the town. But while we are speaking of Jenkins,
+you have now had ample time to consider my request, and I await your
+final answer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then you are still determined to undertake the thing in conjunction
+with Jenkins?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly! Do you suppose that my opinion varies from day to day, or
+that childish chatter such as we have just heard could make me change?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I do not suppose so, but that is just why it seemed strange to me
+that such 'childish gossip' should oblige you to cast down your eyes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gustave, take care!&quot; cried Sandow, his growing passion hardly
+repressed. &quot;I bear more from you than from anyone else, but this affair
+will positively separate us. I saw at a glance that you caused the
+misunderstanding with the agent on purpose to learn how far his
+instructions went, and I know, too, to whom the remark was directed
+with which you reproved Miss Palm. But you will gain nothing of me by
+such means. What I have once decided to do, that I will do, cost what
+it may, and for the last time I give you the choice; but, if you refuse
+me your assistance&quot;--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are mistaken,&quot; interrupted Gustave. &quot;Some days ago I wrote to the
+<i>K--che Zeitung</i> and asked for room for a long article on the subject;
+naturally they will be glad to have one from my pen. Most likely it
+will appear next month.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow was speechless. This quite unexpected submission astonished him
+greatly, and with a certain amount of suspicion he asked--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You will let me see the article before you send it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly; you shall read it word for word.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The clouds began to disappear from Sandow's brow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am glad, very glad. It would have been very painful to me if a
+refusal on your part had led to a breach between us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;On my account, or on that of the Clifford's money?&quot; asked Gustave,
+with overflowing bitterness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Jessie's fortune is not endangered by this speculation,&quot; said Sandow,
+shortly and emphatically. &quot;It is principally placed in very good
+securities, and Clifford stated expressly in his will that his
+daughter's inheritance should not be risked in any speculation before
+she came of age or married. If it will soothe your tender conscience, I
+can assure you that your future wife has not the slightest interest in
+this affair. I have gone into it at my own risk, and stand to win or
+lose alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He rose to go. Gustave rose too.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;One more question, Frank. You have gone very heavily into this
+speculation?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;With half of all I possess! You see its success is most important to
+me; therefore I am very glad that we are at last agreed. I repeat, that
+sort of petty morality won't answer at the present day; sooner or later
+you will see that for yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;With the half of all he possesses!&quot; murmured Gustave, following the
+speaker. &quot;That is bad, very bad! Here we must go to work with the
+greatest caution!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="continue">When the brothers entered the drawing-room they found it deserted, but
+Frida stood outside on the terrace. She could not have heard them
+approach, for as Sandow passed out at the French window she turned
+hastily round, and the traces of tears were clearly seen. She rapidly
+passed her handkerchief over her face, but it was impossible to conceal
+her emotion. It was not usual with the merchant to display much
+consideration for the feelings of others, but here he could easily
+connect the girl's distress with the painful conversation at the
+dinner-table, and in a sudden accession of sympathy he tried to help
+her through her trouble.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You need not be so anxious to hide your tears, Miss Palm,&quot; said he.
+&quot;Here in a strange country you feel home-sick, I am sure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He seemed to have touched the right chord, for in the trembling tone
+with which Frida replied lay the plainest proof of its truth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, an inexpressible home-sickness!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Naturally, you have been such a short time here,&quot; said Sandow,
+carelessly. &quot;All Germans feel that at first, but it soon passes away.
+If one is lucky in the New World one is glad to forget old times, and
+in the end rejoices at having turned one's back on them. Do not look so
+shocked, as if I had said something monstrous. I speak from my own
+experience.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida certainly had looked shocked. Her eyes, yet moist with tears,
+shot forth a glance of scorn and dislike as she hastily cried--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You cannot be serious, Mr. Sandow. I shall forget, give up my country,
+even the recollection of it? Never, never!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow looked rather surprised at this passionate protest from the
+quiet girl; round his lips played a half contemptuous, half pitiful
+smile as he replied--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I reckon you well disposed to learn that. The misfortune of most
+Germans here is that they hold so fast to the past, that the present
+and future are allowed to glide away unnoticed. Home-sickness is one of
+those sickly, affected sentiments which are sometimes considered as
+poetic and interesting, while in real life they are only hindrances.
+Whoever will get on here must keep his head clear and his eyes open, in
+order to seize and profit by every chance. You are compelled by
+circumstances to seek for a living here, and this weak longing and
+dreaming will not help you in that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hard and heartless though these words might sound, they were spoken
+with perfect sincerity. The unfortunate remark about his business
+friend, which might have been expected to irritate and embitter the
+merchant, seemed, on the contrary, to have awakened an interest in the
+girl, whom till then he had scarcely observed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida gave no spoken contradiction to the lesson he condescended to
+give her, and which chilled her inmost heart. But her questioning,
+reproachful look said enough, and these serious, dark eyes seemed to
+produce an extraordinary effect on the usually unimpressionable man.
+This time he did not avoid the look, but bore it unflinchingly.
+Suddenly his voice took involuntarily a milder tone, and he said--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are still young, Miss Palm, very young, far too young to wander
+about the world alone. Was there, then, no one in your native land who
+could offer you a shelter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no one!&quot; came almost inaudibly from the lips of the girl.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course--you are an orphan. I heard that from my niece. And the
+relation who invited you to New York died while you were on your way
+there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The slight inclination of the head which Frida made might be
+interpreted in the affirmative, but a burning blush overspread her
+face, and her eyes sought the ground.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is really very sad. How was it possible to find a proper refuge
+in New York, where you were quite a stranger?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The flush on the girl's cheeks became still deeper.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My fellow-travellers took charge of me,&quot; she answered hesitatingly.
+&quot;They took me to a countryman, the pastor of a German church, where I
+was most kindly received.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And this gentleman recommended you to my niece. I know her mother had
+numerous connections in New York, with some of whom Jessie keeps up a
+correspondence. She feels such warm sympathy for you, that you need
+have no anxiety for the future. With the recommendation of Miss
+Clifford, it will not be difficult to find a suitable place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida appeared as unpractised in falsehood as Jessie. With the latter
+she had not been obliged to use the deception which was necessary in
+speaking to the master of the house. Jessie had from the first been
+acquainted with circumstances which must be carefully concealed from
+Sandow, even now when he began to display some interest in her. But the
+manner of the girl showed how hard her part was. Sandow knew her shy
+and taciturn, but this obstinate silence appeared to annoy him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As he received no reply, he turned abruptly away, and went into the
+garden. Frida drew a long breath, as if released from some burden, and
+returned to the drawing-room. Here she was met by Gustave, who, though
+remaining in the background, and apparently quite indifferent to the
+conversation, had, in reality, not lost a word of it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Listen to me, Frida, I am not at all satisfied with you,&quot; he began in
+a tone of reproof. &quot;What was the object of your coming here? What do
+you mean by avoiding my brother at every opportunity, actually running
+away from him? You make no attempt at a nearer acquaintance; the rare
+moments when he is approachable are allowed to pass unused by, and you
+maintain complete silence when he speaks to you. I have smoothed the
+way for you, and now you must try to walk in it alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida had listened to this lecture in silence; but now she drew
+herself up and said hastily--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What can you not do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Keep the promise which I made to you. You know you half forced it from
+me. Against my will am I here, against my will have I undertaken to
+play the part to which you have condemned me. But I cannot carry it
+through, it is beyond my strength. Let me go home again, here I can do
+no good.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed?&quot; cried Gustave angrily. &quot;That is a brilliant idea. For this
+have I crossed the sea with you, and made deadly enemies of my
+publisher and the editor, who were determined not to let me go. For
+this I sit patiently at the office desk under the weight of Miss
+Clifford's supreme contempt, and all that Miss Frida may declare, once
+for all, 'I will stay no longer.' But it won't do. Surely you are not
+going to cast away your arms after the struggle of one week. On the
+contrary, I must request that you will stay and carry out what we have
+begun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The girl's dark eyes rested sadly and earnestly on the speaker, as if
+reproving his careless tone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not call me ungrateful! I know what I owe you, what you have done
+for me; but the task is harder than I had thought. I can feel no
+affection for this cold, hard man, and he will never feel any for me,
+of that I have the strongest conviction. Had I once seen a kindly
+glance in his eyes, once heard a cordial word from his lips, I might
+have drawn nearer to him; but this frigid character, that nothing can
+warm, nothing can break through, drives me ever farther and farther
+away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Instead of replying, Gustave took her hand, and drew her beside him on
+the sofa.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have I ever said that the task would be easy?&quot; he asked. &quot;It is hard
+enough, harder than I could have believed, but not impossible. With
+this shy avoidance of him, you will certainly attain nothing. You must
+grapple with the foe; he is so strongly mailed that he can only be
+taken by storm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot!&quot; cried Frida passionately. &quot;I tell you that no voice within
+me speaks for him, and if I can neither give nor receive love, what
+shall I do here? Steal my way into a home and fortune. You cannot wish
+that, and if you did, I would refuse both, were they offered to me with
+the heartless indifference with which he permitted me a refuge in his
+house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With the last words she sprang from her seat. Gustave quietly drew her
+down again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now you are getting beyond all bounds, and the end will be an
+obstinate refusal. If I did not know from whom you take that wilful
+obstinacy, that passionate temper which lies under all your outward
+reserve, I would give you another sort of lecture. But these faults are
+hereditary, it is no use fighting against them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The girl seized his hand and held it in both her own, as she
+entreated--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let me away, let me go home again, I beg, I beg! What does it matter
+if I am poor. I can work. I am young, and you will not desert me.
+Thousands are in the same position, and must struggle with life
+themselves. I will rather a thousand times do that than beg for a
+recognition which is withheld from me. I only followed your wishes,
+when you brought me to your brother; I need neither him nor his
+riches.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But he needs you,&quot; said Gustave impressively. &quot;And he needs your love
+more than you believe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The girl's lips trembled with a bitter smile.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There you are certainly wrong! I know little of the world or of men;
+but I know very well that Mr. Sandow neither needs nor wishes for love.
+He loves nothing in the world, not Jessie, who has grown up under his
+eyes almost like a daughter of his own; not you, his own brother. I
+have seen only too plainly how far he is from you both. He knows
+nothing but the desire for wealth, for gain, and yet he is rich enough.
+Is it true, really true, that he is connected with this Jenkins, that
+such a man belongs to his friends?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Child, you understand nothing about that,&quot; said Gustave, evasively.
+&quot;Whoever, like my brother, has seen all the hopes of his life
+shattered, whose every blessing has become a curse, every pleasure a
+disappointment, either sinks utterly under such a catastrophe, or he
+leaves his former self entirely behind, and goes on his way another
+man. I know what he was twelve years ago, and what was then living in
+him cannot be quite dead. You shall awaken it, you shall at all events
+try, and that is why I have brought you here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The deep earnestness with which these words were spoken, did not fail
+of their effect on Frida; but she said, with a shake of the head--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am, and must remain a stranger to him. You have yourself forbidden
+me to let him suspect anything of our circumstances.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly I have, for if he now discovered the truth he would most
+likely repulse you with the utmost harshness; your obstinacy is equal
+to his, and thus all would be lost. But at least you must approach him.
+As yet you have scarcely spoken together. No voice rises in your heart,
+you say. But it must rise in you, in him, and it will rise when you
+have learnt to stand face to face together.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will try!&quot; said Frida, with a deep sigh. &quot;But if I fail, if I only
+meet with harshness and suspicion&quot;--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You must remember that he is a man much sinned against,&quot; interrupted
+Gustave, &quot;so much, that he has a right to look with mistrust and
+suspicion on all, and to draw back where another would lovingly open
+wide his arms. You are innocent, you suffer for the faults of others;
+but all the weight, poor child, falls on you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The girl made no reply, but two hot tears rolled down her cheeks, while
+she rested her head on the speaker's shoulder. He stroked her forehead
+softly and soothingly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Poor child! Yes, it is hard, at your age, when all should be joy and
+sunshine, to be already so deeply plunged in hatred and disunion, in
+the whole misery of human life. It has been hard enough to me to reveal
+all this to you; but it entered with such force into your life that it
+was imperative for you to know it. And my Frida does not belong to the
+weak and vacillating, she has something of the energy, and, alas,
+something of the hardness of a certain other nature. So bravely
+forwards, we must conquer in the end!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida dried her tears and forced a smile.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are right! I am so ungrateful and stubborn towards you, who have
+done so much for me! You are&quot;--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The best and noblest of men&quot;--interrupted Gustave, &quot;naturally I am,
+and it is very extraordinary that Miss Clifford will not recognise my
+perfections, though you have so touchingly assured her of them. But now
+go out in the air for a few minutes. You look flushed and tearful, and
+you must do away with these signs of excitement. Meanwhile, I will wait
+here for Jessie. We have not had one dispute to-day, and a wrangle has
+become one of the necessities of life to me, which I cannot do
+without.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida obeyed. She left the drawing-room, crossed the terrace, and
+descended into the garden. Slowly she walked through the beautiful
+park-like grounds, which stretched down to the shore, and on which the
+whole skill of the landscape gardener had been spent; but the spot she
+sought, lay in the most distant part of the garden. It was a simple
+bench, shaded by two mighty trees; it afforded an unlimited view over
+the sea, and from the first day, had become the favourite retreat of
+the young stranger. The fresh sea wind cooled Frida's heated cheeks,
+and swept the traces of tears from her face, but the shade on her brow
+defied all its efforts. This shade grew only darker and deeper, while
+she, lost in distant dreams, watched the play of the waves which broke
+upon the beach.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The garden was not so deserted as it seemed, for at no great distance
+voices might be heard. Just by the iron railing which enclosed the
+domain of the villa, stood Sandow with the gardener, and inspected the
+addition, which in the last few days, had been made to the grounds.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The gardener directed, with ill-concealed pride, his attention to the
+work, which was really planned and carried out with great taste and
+skill, but the master of the house did not display much interest in it.
+He cast a careless glance over it, with a few cool words expressed his
+satisfaction, and went again on his way towards the house. Thus he
+passed the bench where Frida sat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is that you, Miss Palm? You have chosen the most retired spot in the
+whole garden for your retreat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But also the most beautiful! The view of the sea is so magnificent?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is a matter of taste,&quot; said Sandow. &quot;For me that eternal rolling
+up and down has a deadly monotony. I could not long endure it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He said this in passing, and was on the point of leaving her. She would
+probably have left his remark unanswered, and the conversation would
+have ended there, but Gustave's warning bore fruit. She did not
+preserve that shy silence as usual, but replied in a tone of which the
+deep emotion forced a recognition.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I love the sea so dearly--and--even if you ridicule me, Mr. Sandow,--I
+cannot forget that my home lies there, beyond those waves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow did not appear disposed for ridicule. He stood still, his eyes
+followed involuntarily the direction she pointed out, and then rested
+earnestly and musingly on Frida's face, as if he sought something
+there.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was a misty and rather gloomy afternoon. The clouds hung heavy with
+rain over the scene, and the usually unbounded view over the sunny blue
+waves, was to-day, confined and veiled. One could scarcely see a
+hundred steps away; farther out lay thick fog on the sea, and the
+restlessly moving flood enlightened by no ray of sunshine, showed a
+dark grey tint, which gave it an almost oppressive air of gloom.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Restlessly rolled on the waves, and burst with a hiss into white foam
+on the sand of the shore. Far out in the fog sounded the roaring of the
+distant ocean, and two gulls took their slow flight over the waves and
+vanished in the mist. Frida's eyes followed them dreamily, and she
+started violently when Sandow, who till now had preserved silence,
+suddenly asked--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What was the name of the clergyman with whom you lived in New York?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pastor Hagen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And there you heard those remarks about Jenkins and Co.?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Mr. Sandow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida seemed about to add something, but the abruptness with which the
+last question was uttered closed her lips.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I might have supposed so. These clerical gentlemen with their
+extravagant views of morality, are always ready with a sentence of
+damnation, when a thing does not exactly fit their measure. From the
+pulpit it is much easier to look down on a sinful world, than it is to
+us who must live and struggle in the midst of it. These gentlemen
+should for a moment try what it is, they would soon lose some of their
+virtuous calm and Christian spotlessness, but they would learn to judge
+better of other things of which now they understand absolutely
+nothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The bitter sarcasm of these last words would perhaps have terrified
+another, but Frida's spirit rose energetically against it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pastor Hagen is mildness and consideration itself,&quot; with a blaze of
+indignation. &quot;Certainly he will never condemn anyone unjustly. It was
+the first and only time that I heard a harsh judgment from his lips,
+and I know that only care for the dangerous position of his countrymen
+drew it from him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Does that perhaps mean that he is right?&quot; asked Sandow sharply, while
+almost threateningly he advanced a step nearer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not know. I am quite strange and unknown to all. But you, Mr.
+Sandow, are acquainted with this man, you must know&quot;--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She dared not complete the sentence, for she felt that every additional
+word might be an insult, and so indeed Sandow seemed to take it. The
+milder tone in which he had begun the conversation, disappeared in the
+wonted cold severity as he returned--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At all events, I am much surprised to hear how the name and reputation
+of a great firm can be slandered in certain circles. You are still
+almost a child, Miss Palm, and it is easy to imagine, but understand
+nothing of, such things. You cannot know how influential the name of
+Jenkins and Co. is in the commercial world. But those who allow
+themselves such freedom in their slander should consider that and
+beware.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This refutation sounded dry enough, but not convincing. Of the power
+and influence of the man no one had doubted, only that his influence
+was injurious. Frida of course had no idea of the nature of the
+connection between the two houses, but even the mention of the two
+names together had deeply shocked her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are angry with me for my imprudent expressions about your friend,&quot;
+she said. &quot;I repeated unsuspectingly what I had heard, and Pastor
+Hagen's remarks only referred to the danger with which such
+undertakings threaten our emigrants. He has daily in New York before
+his eyes the proof of how deeply such things affect the weal or woe of
+thousands. You cannot know that the interests of your banking-house lie
+certainly far removed from such speculations.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now how is it that you are so sure of it?&quot; asked Sandow jestingly, but
+the jest seemed somewhat forced. The dialogue began to disturb him, yet
+he made no effort to break it off; there was something in it which
+charmed and enchained him against his will.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida emerged more and more from her reserve. The subject interested
+her in the highest degree, and her voice trembled with deep emotion as
+she replied--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have once, only once, seen such a picture of misery, but it has made
+an indelible impression on me. While I was in New York, a number of
+emigrants came to us, Germans, who some years ago had gone to the Far
+West, and were now returning. They had, doubtless, listened too readily
+to the representations of the unscrupulous agents, and had lost
+everything in those pathless woods. There they had left, sacrificed to
+the climate, many of their nearest and dearest; there they had left
+their means, their hopes, their courage--all! The German pastor who had
+warned them before and whom they had not credited, must now advise them
+and procure them the means of returning to their native land. It was
+terrible to see these, once so courageous and strong, now so utterly
+broken down and despairing, and to hear their lamentations. I shall
+never forget it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As if overpowered by the recollection, she laid her hand upon her eyes.
+Sandow replied not one word. He had turned away and looked grave and
+motionless out into the mist. Immovable, as if chained to the spot, he
+listened to every word which came with ever-increasing passion and
+excitement from the youthful lips.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I saw myself, on board the steamer which brought also hundreds of
+emigrants here, how much anxiety and care such a ship carries, how many
+hopes and fears. Happiness is seldom the cause which forces them to
+leave their home. With so many it is the last hope, the last attempt to
+create a new home for themselves out here. And then to think that all
+their hopes fail, all their toil and labour is lost, that they must be
+ruined because one man will enrich himself, because there are men who,
+on purpose, with the fullest knowledge send their brothers into misery,
+to make a gain out of their destruction. I should never have believed
+it possible had I not myself seen it and heard it from those who
+returned!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She stopped, started at the deadly pallor which overspread the face of
+the man who still stood motionless before her. His features remained
+firm and inflexible as ever, no feeling betrayed itself there, but
+every drop of blood seemed to have forsaken those features, whose fixed
+expression had something unearthly in it. He did not see the anxious
+questioning look of the girl, her sudden silence seemed first to
+restore him to consciousness. With an abrupt movement he drew himself
+up, and passed his hand over his brow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;One must acknowledge that you stand bravely by your countrymen,&quot; said
+he. His voice sounded dull and heavy, as if every word were produced by
+a strong effort.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So would you if you had an opportunity for doing so,&quot; returned Frida,
+with perfect assurance. &quot;You would cast the whole weight of your name
+and position into the scale against such undertakings, and certainly
+you could do far more than an unknown clergyman, whose own duties leave
+him so little time, and who has already so much distress and misery to
+alleviate in his own parish. Mr. Sandow,&quot; with suddenly awakening
+confidence, she drew a step nearer to him, &quot;really I did not mean to
+affront you by those heedless words. It is quite possible that report
+has wronged the man, or that Pastor Hagen has been deceived. You do not
+believe it, I can see from your emotion, and you must know him best?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was certainly agitated, this man whose hand so convulsively grasped
+the back of the bench, as if he would crush the carved wood with his
+fingers, so agitated that some moments passed before he regained full
+control over his voice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We have fallen upon a very disagreeable topic,&quot; said he at last
+turning away. &quot;I should never have believed that the timid, quiet
+child, who during the week spent in my house, scarcely dared to raise
+her eyes or open her lips, would blaze out so passionately when
+strangers' interests were concerned. Why have you never shown this side
+before?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I dared not. I feared so much&quot;--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida said no more, but her eyes which were raised half confidently,
+half timidly to his, expressed what the lips could not, and she was
+understood.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Whom did you fear? Was it me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; she replied with a deep breath. &quot;I feared you dreadfully till
+this moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But you should not fear me, child!&quot; In Sandow's voice was a tone
+silent for many years and grown quite strange, but which spoke of
+rising warmth and softness. &quot;No doubt I seem cold and stern to you, and
+so I am in the business world, but towards the young guest who has
+sought shelter in my house I would not be so. Do not for the future
+avoid me as you have done. You must not be afraid of me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He stretched his hand out to her, but Frida hesitated to take it. She
+became alternately red and pale, some stormy, hardly repressed feeling
+seemed bursting from her control. Suddenly Jessie's voice was heard
+from the terrace. Growing anxious at the long absence of the young
+visitor she called her name. Frida sprang up.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Miss Clifford calls me, I must go to her. Thank you, Mr. Sandow, I
+will not be afraid of you again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And hastily, before he could prevent her, she pressed her lips to the
+offered hand, and fled away through the shrubbery.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With great astonishment Sandow looked after her. A singular girl! What
+did it mean, this strange mixture of shyness and confidence, of blazing
+passion and such power of self-repression? It was a riddle to him, but
+just with this unexpected, contradictory character, Frida succeeded in
+what the cleverest calculations could not have done--in awaking a deep
+and abiding interest in the heart of a man generally so cold and
+indifferent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had indeed every reason to be irritated and annoyed &quot;with the
+fanciful girl, with her exaggerated ideas,&quot; but through his irritation
+another feeling forced its way, the same which he experienced when he
+first looked into these dark childish eyes, and of which he could
+scarcely say whether it caused him pain or pleasure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He forgot, perhaps, for the first time in his life, that his study, and
+his writing table laden with important letters awaited him. Slowly he
+sank on to the bench and gazed at the restless rolling sea.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A deadly monotony&quot; he had said, of this eternal motion. The taste for
+the beauties of nature had long ago died out in him, like so many other
+tastes, but the words of the just concluded conversation still rang in
+his ears. Truly; on the other side of this heaving ocean lay his native
+land, his home. Sandow had not thought of it for years. What was home
+to him? He had been long estranged from it, he clung with all the roots
+of his present life to the land he could thank for what he was. The
+past lay as far distant from him as the unseen coast of home, yonder in
+the mist.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The proud rich merchant, whose name was known in every quarter of the
+globe, who was accustomed to reckon with hundreds of thousands,
+certainly looked back with contemptuous pity on the past, on the narrow
+life of a subordinate official in a provincial German town. How close
+and confined was then the horizon of his life, how wearily must he then
+struggle to make both ends of his paltry salary meet, till at last,
+after long hoping and waiting, he reached a position which allowed him
+to establish his modest household. And yet how that poor narrow life
+had been beautified and ennobled by the sunshine of love and happiness
+which was shed around it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A young and beautiful wife, a blooming child, the present full of
+sunshine, the future full of joyful hopes and dreams, he needed nothing
+more, his whole life was overflowing with happiness, but what a fearful
+end to all that joy!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">An old friend of Sandow's, who had grown up with him, who had shared
+his boyish amusements, and later had accompanied him to the university,
+returned, after a long absence, to his native town. He was well-off and
+independent, and his life was dimmed by no cares for the morrow, unlike
+his friend; who, however, received him with open arms and led him to
+his home. And then began one of those domestic tragedies which are
+often concealed for years, till at last some catastrophe brings them to
+light.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The blinded man suspected not that his wife's heart was estranged from
+him, that treachery spun its webs around him under his own roof. His
+love, his confidence, firm as if founded on a rock, helped to blind
+him, and when his eyes were at last opened, it was too late, he saw his
+happiness and honour lying in ruin before him. Almost driven mad by
+despair, he lost self-control and struck the destroyer of his happiness
+to the ground.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Fate had at least preserved him from that last misery,
+blood-guiltiness. Although severely injured, the traitor recovered
+slowly, but Sandow had to pay the penalty of his deed by an
+imprisonment of many a weary year. Though Right was unquestionably on
+his side, the letter of the law sentenced him, and that sentence
+destroyed his whole existence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His situation was naturally lost, his official career closed. She, who
+had once been his wife, had after the necessary separation had taken
+place, given her hand to the man for whose sake she had betrayed her
+husband, and whose name she now bore. And the one thing left to him,
+the one thing the law allowed to the desolate man, that he himself put
+from him. He had learnt to doubt all, all that he had once considered
+pure and true, he now looked on as lying deception; thus he believed no
+more in his paternal rights, and refused to recognise the little being
+which had once been the joy of his heart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He left it to the mother without even seeing it again. Under these
+circumstances it was impossible to contemplate returning to his native
+town.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Only America was open to him, that refuge of so many shattered
+existences. Despairing of himself and of the world, poor and with the
+prison stain upon his brow, he went there, but it was the turning point
+in his life. There he rose from deepest misery to riches and splendour.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">From that time success had remained true to Frank Sandow. Whatever he
+ventured brought the richest returns, and soon he found only too much
+pleasure in these ventures. He dragged the quiet and timorous Clifford
+with him into the boldest and fool-hardiest speculations, and, as since
+his death, the reins had been entirely in his own hands, he could now
+brook no control.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was something almost terrible in this restless, unceasing, hunt
+for gain in a man, who heaped up riches, but had no one for whom to
+gather them. But man must have something to cling to, something to give
+an aim and object to his life, and when the nobler good is lost, it is
+often the demon of gold which makes itself lord of the empty shrine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus Sandow had fallen a victim. This demon spurred him ever forwards
+to new gains, drove him from one wild speculation to another, and led
+him to place his all on a single card. But it made him also insensible
+of every joy of life, to peace or happiness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The chief of the great American banking house had indeed won for
+himself an imposing position, but his countenance showed only furrows
+of care, only the traces of feverish excitement; of peace and happiness
+there was no sign there.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The mist over the sea had grown thicker and spread farther and farther.
+Like dusky visions it floated to the land, and out of it rolled and
+burst the gloomy billows. The wind which now arose in its full might,
+drove them more strongly and violently on the strand. They came no more
+with a light splash, but roared and foamed on the beach. Threateningly
+they rushed to the feet of the lonely man, who darkly, and as if lost
+in thought, looked down on them. It was as if every wave repeated the
+words he had just heard, and that out of the fog arose the pictures
+they had called up before him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Singular! What Gustave's energetic representations could not produce,
+this childish chatter had succeeded in doing. The earnest warnings of
+his brother had brought no effect on the merchant, he cast them off
+contemptuously as &quot;sentimental notions,&quot; as the &quot;ideas of a novice,&quot;
+and finally silenced him with a threat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had long been unaccustomed to take the weal and woe of others into
+consideration in his calculations. &quot;One must reckon with men as with
+figures!&quot; That was the principle of his life, and the foundation of his
+riches. Even in this speculation which had been proposed to him by his
+correspondent, he had reckoned with them, and it had not once occurred
+to him that men's lives should be thought of too. And now an
+inexperienced child, who had no idea of the effect her words could
+produce, had dared to speak thus to him. The words worked and fermented
+in him, he could not tear the thoughts from him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How much care and anxiety such a ship bears, how many hopes and
+fears!&quot; Sandow had experienced that too, he too had landed here with
+his shattered hopes, with the last despairing attempt to begin a new
+life here. Success had come to him, friends and relations had held out
+a helping hand to him. Without that, he also might have succumbed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But still came hundreds of ships, and the thousands that they carried
+had made also their last venture, gazed also fearfully around for any
+helping hand which might be stretched out to them. There was still room
+for many here, and the New World might look more benevolently on them
+than the Old.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But, whoever seized the hand which Jenkins and Co. stretched out to
+them, went to their ruin. And there was room for so many in that
+district, where famine and fever awaited them. They had bought that
+enormous territory for a song, and must at any price people it, to
+pocket the hoped-for enormous gain. There were really men who sent
+their brothers to destruction to enrich themselves.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow sprang suddenly up. He would tear himself from these thoughts,
+which seemed burnt into his memory, from these words, which haunted him
+like spectres. He could endure the monotonous roar of the sea no
+longer, and the mist lay like a heavy weight upon his breast. It
+literally hunted him from the place and into the house. But it was in
+vain that he locked himself into his room, that he buried himself in
+letters and despatches. Outside the sea roared and rolled, and
+something within him arose and struggled upwards--upwards--something
+which had lain asleep for years, and at last awoke--his conscience!</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="continue">Jessie sat in the garden and drew, and opposite to her in the arbour
+sat Gustave Sandow. He had just returned from town, where he had
+occupied himself about everything imaginable, except, alas! the one
+thing which was expected from the future head of the house of Clifford.
+He had not even set his foot within the counting-house. For there were
+so many other things to attend to. First he had visited a rich banker
+in the town, who had just received from Europe a costly painting on
+which he wished Gustave's opinion. As both owner and critic were alike
+eager on the subject, the inspection extended itself over the whole,
+tolerably valuable picture gallery of the banker, and occupied several
+hours.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After that, both gentlemen drove to a great meeting on some town
+interests, and at which Mr. Sandow, jun., was an eager and interested
+listener.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In conclusion, he had a small private meeting which some gentlemen of
+the press had called together in honour of their former colleague. The
+state of affairs in Germany and America was here thoroughly examined,
+and meanwhile it had become so late, that Gustave considered it quite
+unnecessary to visit his brother's office. He preferred driving direct
+to the villa to keep the ladies company.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After such a thoroughly satisfactory day's work, he thought himself
+justified in satisfying the craving of his heart, which could only
+happen when he, at least once a day, had a wrangle with Miss Clifford.
+With this intention he rapidly sought and found her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">During the last few weeks a noticeable change had taken place in
+Jessie. Some secret trouble, which she did not perhaps acknowledge to
+herself, cast a shade over the lovely face, which looked paler and more
+serious than before, and round the mouth, too, lay a half bitter, half
+painful line which was formerly not there. The presence of Gustave was
+clearly not likely to cheer her, for she avoided looking at him, and
+earnestly continued her drawing, while, to all his remarks, she
+returned only short and unconnected replies.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But it was not so easy to frighten Gustave away. When all his attempts
+at conversation failed he rose and bent over the half-finished drawing,
+which he examined with a critical eye.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A very pretty subject! It promises much, but you must entirely change
+the perspective, Miss Clifford, it is quite wrong.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At last that produced the intended effect. Jessie raised her head, and
+looked indignantly at the uncalled adviser.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You don't draw yourself, Mr. Sandow, I believe?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, but I criticise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So I see. Nevertheless you will permit me to retain my perspective as
+it is, until a real artist has convinced me of its errors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave calmly took his seat again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Just as you please! I propose that we should call in Frida as arbiter.
+She has remarkable talent for drawing, and it has been cultivated with
+the greatest care.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Frida?&quot; repeated Jessie, letting her pencil rest, &quot;I wanted to speak
+to you about her. She seems really to have nearly gained her end, for
+my guardian's interest in her increases day by day. For my part, this
+is rather perplexing, considering the indifference with which he
+treated her at first, but Frida must have found out how to get the
+right side of him, for suddenly he displayed so deep an interest in her
+as I had not conceived possible with his dry cold nature. Already he
+cannot bear to miss her. He shows unmistakable displeasure if the
+possibility of her departure is spoken of, and this morning, without
+the slightest remark on my side, he proposed to me that she should
+remain here permanently as my companion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did he really propose that?&quot; cried Gustave eagerly. &quot;That is more, far
+more, than I had yet dared to hope. Certainly we are not far from our
+goal!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think so too, and therefore it will soon be time to release the poor
+child from the painful and humiliating position in which she is. Here
+she is regarded as a total stranger, while she really stands in the
+closest connection with you; and is forced to keep up a constant
+succession of deceptions. I often see, at some harmless remark of my
+uncle's which she is obliged to avoid, how the blood flies to her
+cheeks, how the part she is forced to play embarrasses and distresses
+her. I fear she will not be able to endure it much longer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She must!&quot; declared Gustave. &quot;I know that it is hard for her, and
+sometimes she tries to rebel, but I understand already how to manage
+her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Between Miss Clifford's delicate brows appeared a deep frown of
+displeasure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I acknowledge, Mr. Sandow, that your tone and your whole manner of
+treating Frida are quite incomprehensible to me. You treat her
+completely as a child that must obey implicitly your higher will, and
+seem quite to forget that she must take a place at your side some day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She must first be educated for it,&quot; said Gustave condescendingly. &quot;At
+present she is scarcely sixteen, and I am thirty, therefore the child
+must look on me with respect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So it seems! I should expect something more from my future husband,
+than that he should set himself up as an object of my respect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Miss Clifford, that is quite different. No one would permit
+himself such a tone towards you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I suppose my fortune gives me a claim to more consideration. With the
+poor dependent orphan, whom one elevates to one's own position, any
+manner is permitted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The remark sounded so bitter that Gustave noticed it, and cast a
+questioning glance at the young lady.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you think that Frida belongs to those natures which allow
+themselves to be thus elevated?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No; I think her very proud, and far more courageous than is usual at
+her age. Just on that account is this unquestioning docility
+incomprehensible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes. I am rather successful in training,&quot; acknowledged Gustave. &quot;But
+as to your proposition, to tell the whole to my brother immediately,
+that is impossible. You don't know my brother; his obstinacy is by no
+means conquered, and would return doubly strong if he discovered our
+plot. The moment that he learnt that I had brought Frida here with a
+decided purpose, his anger would burst forth, and he would send us both
+back across the ocean.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That would indeed be a misfortune, for then the advantage of the whole
+intrigue would be lost.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie must indeed have been irritated before she allowed the hateful
+word &quot;intrigue&quot; to pass her lips, but it slipped out, and Gustave quite
+accepted it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Quite right; that is what I fear, and it would never do to jeopardise
+it thus, now my heart is set on remaining here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a peculiar light in his eyes at the last words. Jessie did
+not see it; she had bent again over her drawing, and worked away with
+renewed zeal, but the pencil trembled in her hand, and the strokes
+became hasty and uncertain. Gustave watched her for a while; at last he
+rose again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, Miss Clifford, it really will not do to treat the perspective like
+that. Permit me one moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And without further ceremony, he took the pencil from her hand, and
+began to alter the drawing. Jessie was about to make a violent protest,
+but she quickly saw that the pencil was in a very practised hand, and
+that a few powerful strokes entirely corrected the error.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You declared you could not draw,&quot; said she, wavering between anger and
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! It is only a little <i>dilletante</i> performance, which I do not
+venture to call talent. Only enough to enable me to criticise. Here,
+Miss Clifford.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He returned the leaf to her. Jessie looked silently at it and then at
+him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I really admire your versatility, of which you have just given me a
+proof. You are everything imaginable, Mr. Sandow! Politician,
+journalist, artist.--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And merchant,&quot; said Gustave, completing the sentence. &quot;Yes, I am a
+sort of universal genius, but share alas, the fate of all geniuses; I
+am not recognised by my contemporaries.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His half-ironical inclination showed that for the moment he looked upon
+her as representing his contemporaries. Jessie made no reply, but began
+to collect her drawing materials.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is quite chilly. I ought to go in. Pray do not disturb yourself; I
+will send the servant to fetch my things,&quot; and declining with a motion
+of her hand any assistance from him, she took the drawing from the
+table, and left the summer-house.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave shook his head as he looked after her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I seem really to have fallen into disgrace; the last few weeks she has
+been quite changed. I would rather hear the most violent attack on my
+selfishness and want of thought than this cool and measured bitterness.
+I fear it is high time for me to tell all the truth, and yet I dare not
+risk Frida's future by so doing. A premature catastrophe would spoil
+all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At that moment a carriage drove past the villa. It was Sandow returning
+from business. He came direct to the garden.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here already!&quot; was the short greeting he bestowed on his brother.
+&quot;Where are the ladies?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Miss Clifford has just left me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And Miss Palm?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I suppose she is on the beach. I have not seen her since my return.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow's eyes impatiently sought the farther part of the garden. He
+seemed disappointed that Frida had not come to meet him as usual.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have not seen you since this morning,&quot; he remarked with temper. &quot;You
+certainly asked leave on account of pressing business, still I expected
+to see you in the office later. What kind of business can you have
+which occupies a whole day?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, first I was with Henderson, the banker.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah! About the new loan which is being raised in M----. I am glad that
+you have seen him yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Naturally about the loan,&quot; said Gustave, who did not scruple to leave
+his brother in error about his business proceedings, though in his
+wanderings through the picture gallery there had been no mention of the
+projected loan. &quot;And then there was some talk about private affairs.
+When Mrs. Henderson was last here she saw our young country woman, and
+is quite charmed with her. It is remarkable what an effect this still,
+timid child produces on every one. From their first meeting, Miss
+Clifford, too, became one of her warmest friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The child is not so quiet and shy as you imagine,&quot; said Sandow, whose
+eyes continued to look towards the shore. &quot;Beneath that reserve is a
+deeply emotional, a quite uncommon nature. I never suspected it till
+accident revealed it to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And since then, you, too, belong to the conquered. Really, Frank, I
+scarcely know you again. You treat this young girl, this almost total
+stranger, with a consideration, one might almost say a tenderness, of
+which your only and highly deserving brother has never been able to
+boast.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow had seated himself, and thoughtfully supported his head on his
+hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is something so fresh, so untouched, in such a young creature.
+Against one's will it recalls one's own youthful days. She still clings
+so fast to her enthusiastic ideas, to her dreams of happiness to come,
+and cannot understand that the outer world should look on things under
+such a different aspect. Foolish, childish ideas, which will fall away
+of themselves in the rough school of the world, but while one listens
+to them all one's lost beliefs by degrees revive again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again his voice had that peculiar softened tone, which those even who
+best knew the merchant had never heard from his lips, and which seemed
+like an echo from some older, happier time. Frida must indeed have
+understood how to touch the right chord as no one before had done, for
+the very qualities, which in Jessie were regarded as sentimentality and
+exaggeration, had here found their way to the stern, cold heart of
+the man. Gustave felt this contradiction, and said, with a touch of
+satire--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But all that should not be new to you. You have lived all these years
+in Clifford's family, and Jessie has grown up under your eyes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Jessie was always her parents' idolized darling,&quot; replied Sandow,
+coldly. &quot;Love and happiness were literally showered upon her, and
+whoever did not treat her with flattery and tenderness, as myself for
+example, was feared and avoided by her. I have always been a stranger
+to this fair-haired, soft and petted child, and since she has been
+grown up, we have become still more distant. But this Frida with her
+wilful reserve, which we must overcome before reaching the real nature,
+has nothing weak and wavering about her. When once the somewhat
+forbidding crust has been broken through, strength and life are found
+beneath. I like such natures, perhaps because I feel something kindred
+in them, and sometimes I am surprised, almost startled, to hear from
+the lips of that girl, remarks and ideas almost identical with what
+were mine at the same age.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave made no reply, but he closely examined his brother's
+countenance. The latter felt this, and, as if ashamed of the warmer
+feeling he had allowed himself to display, immediately stopped, and
+resumed his usual cold business tone and manner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You might at least have come to the office for a few hours. There are
+things of importance going on, and another letter from Jenkins has
+arrived. He presses for the fulfilment of your promise with regard to
+the <i>K--che Zeitung</i>, and it is certainly high time. You must have
+written your article long since.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I had not supposed there was any hurry,&quot; said Gustave. &quot;For some weeks
+you have not even mentioned the subject.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There were so many preparations to make. I have kept up an active
+correspondence with New York on the subject.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Which you have not allowed me to see as you did the former letters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then it was necessary for you to learn all particulars. This time it
+concerned very unpleasant difficulties which I alone must arrange.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know; you have tried to release yourself from the whole thing!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow sprang up, and looked at his brother with the same air of
+speechless astonishment, as formerly when he heard of the journey to
+the much talked of possessions.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I! Who has betrayed that to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No one, but many signs led me to suppose so, and now I see that I was
+not mistaken in my supposition.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow looked darkly and suspiciously at his brother, who stood before
+him with perfect composure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have really a dangerous power of observation! With you one must be
+perpetually under control, and even then is not safe in his inmost
+thoughts. Well yes, then, I did wish to withdraw. On closer examination
+the speculation did not seem so favourable, did not promise half the
+profit we had at first believed. I tried to release myself from the
+obligation, or to induce someone else to take my place, but have not
+been successful. Jenkins stands by the completion of our bargain, and I
+have now pledged myself completely. Nothing remains but to promptly
+carry out the first agreement.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He brought out these disjointed remarks with nervous haste, and
+meanwhile played with his pocket-book which he had drawn out. His whole
+manner displayed a violent, hardly suppressed excitement. Gustave did
+not appear to notice it, but replied with calm decision--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now there must be some means of freeing oneself from such a bargain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No; for the sums which I have already sunk in this undertaking bind my
+hands. I stand the chance of losing all, if I withdraw now. Jenkins is
+just the man to hold me fast, and to use every letter of the contract
+against me, as soon as our interests cease to go hand in hand. So the
+thing must take its course.--Ah! Miss Frida, at last you allow us a
+glimpse of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The last words, which sounded like a sigh of relief, were directed to
+the girl who now appeared in the arbour. During the last weeks Frida
+had also altered, but the change took a different form, than with
+Jessie. The childish face formerly so pale had now a rosy tinge, the
+dark eyes were still grave, but they had lost that troubled look. They
+sparkled with glad surprise when they beheld the master of the house,
+whom Frida immediately approached with frank confidingness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you home already, Mr. Sandow? I did not know, or I should have
+come long ago, but&quot;--she looked at the serious faces of the two men,
+and made a movement as if to leave them--&quot;I am afraid I disturb you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not at all,&quot; said Sandow quickly. &quot;We were only debating on some
+business matters, and I am glad to make an end of the discussion. Stay
+here!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He threw his pocket-book on the table and stretched out his hand. The
+cold, stern man, whose austere manner had never softened even in the
+family circle, seemed at this moment another being. The few weeks must
+have wrought a great change in him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave greeted Frida in the polite but formal manner, which he always
+showed to her in the presence of his brother.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have a message and an invitation for you, Miss Palm,&quot; said he. &quot;Mrs.
+Henderson would like to see you soon, in order to talk farther with you
+over the arrangement which has been already mentioned.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What arrangement is that?&quot; asked Sandow, becoming suddenly attentive.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida cast a startled and questioning look at Gustave, and replied with
+some uncertainty--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mrs. Henderson's companion is leaving, and the situation has been
+offered to me. I had better&quot;--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You will not accept it,&quot; interrupted Sandow with decision. Vexation
+was audible in his voice. &quot;Why this haste? There must be other and
+better places to be found.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The banker's family is one of the first in the town,&quot; remarked
+Gustave.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And Mrs. Henderson one of the most insupportable women, who torments
+her entire household with her nerves and whims, and her companion is a
+perfect victim to them. No, Miss Frida, give up the idea. I will on no
+account agree to your taking this situation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">An almost imperceptible but triumphant smile played round Gustave's
+lips.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida stood speechless, her eyes on the ground; all the old awkwardness
+seemed to have returned with these words.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow misunderstood her silence. He looked searchingly at her, and
+then continued more slowly--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course I do not wish to control your wishes. If you want to leave
+us&quot;--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No! no!&quot; cried Frida, so passionately that Gustave was obliged to make
+a warning sign to her, to remind her of the necessity of self-control.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She quickly collected herself, and said with a trembling voice--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am so much afraid of being tiresome to Miss Clifford.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is a foolish idea,&quot; said Sandow reprovingly. &quot;Tiresome to us! My
+niece will soon convince you of the contrary. She will make you a
+better offer than Mrs. Henderson's. Jessie is far too much alone, and
+needs a companion; it is not good for a young girl to be quite without
+one of her own sex. Will you be this companion, Frida? Will you stay
+altogether with us?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The girl raised her eyes to him; they were wet with tears, and there
+was something in them which looked like a prayer for forgiveness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you agree to it, Mr. Sandow, I will gratefully accept Miss
+Clifford's kindness, but only if you wish me to remain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Over Sandow's face flashed a smile, slight, but it brightened like a
+ray of sunshine the dark, stern features.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Am I, then, such a dreaded power in the house? Jessie has, then,
+already spoken of this project, and you feared my refusal. No, no,
+child! My niece is perfectly free to do as she pleases, and I will
+immediately talk the thing over with her, and settle it once for all.
+Mrs. Henderson shall learn to-morrow morning that she must look for
+another companion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He rose, and waving her a slight, but friendly greeting, left the
+arbour.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Scarcely was he out of hearing when Gustave approached the girl.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is afraid that the Hendersons will kidnap you from him, and hastens
+to make sure of you!&quot; said he triumphantly. &quot;Why do you look so
+terrified? Do you think I shall hand you over to Mrs. Henderson, who
+to-day certainly gave me the message to you, but who really deserves
+the character my brother has given her. I was obliged to learn how he
+would look on the idea of your leaving. He was quite beside himself
+about it. Bravo, child! You have managed your affairs capitally, and
+now, instead of the censure I first heaped upon you, must declare that
+I am thoroughly satisfied with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida paid no attention to the eulogy. Her eyes followed Sandow, who
+was just disappearing behind the shrubbery. Now she turned and said--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I can deceive him no longer. As long as he was hard and cold I might
+have done it; now, the falsehood crushes me to the earth!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Cast the whole responsibility on me,&quot; said Gustave encouragingly. &quot;I
+have placed you in this position, have woven the 'intrigue,' as Miss
+Clifford so flatteringly expresses it; I will also bear the
+responsibility when the moment for explanation comes. But now the
+watchword is 'forward!' and we must not fail for a moment. When we are
+so near our aim, we must persevere. Think of that, and promise me that
+you will endure to the end.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida drooped her head; she did not refuse, but neither did she give
+the required promise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave continued in a serious tone--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Jessie, too, urges me to a declaration, and, I see, cannot comprehend
+my hesitation. She does not understand the circumstances, but believes
+that you are a stranger to her guardian, who has won his affection, and
+to whom he would gladly open his arms. But we&quot;--here he seized Frida's
+hand, and grasped it firmly in his own--&quot;we know better, my poor child!
+We know that you have to struggle with a gloomy hatred which has
+already poisoned his life, and has rooted itself so firmly in that life
+that a few kind words cannot banish it. I struggled for your rights
+when my brother left Europe, have tried again and again, and have thus
+learnt how deeply grafted in him is this miserable idea. You must
+become still more to him if it is entirely to be torn from him. Can you
+think that without the most urgent necessity I would lay such a yoke
+upon you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no, certainly not! I will obey you in everything, only it is so
+hard to lie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not to me!&quot; declared Gustave. &quot;I would never have believed that the
+Jesuitical principle, 'the end justifies the means,' could have been
+such a perfect antidote to all the pricks of conscience. I lie with a
+kind of peace of mind, or rather with a conscious sublimity. But you
+need not take a pattern by me. It is by no means necessary that a child
+like you should have attained such a height of objectivity. On the
+contrary, falsehood must and should be difficult to you, and it gives
+me the greatest satisfaction to know that such is the case.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But Jessie,&quot; said Frida, &quot;may I not at least take her into our
+confidence? She has been so kind, so affectionate to me, a stranger,
+has opened her arms as if to a sister&quot;--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To get rid of me!&quot; interrupted Gustave. &quot;Yes, that is why she received
+you with open arms. In order to escape my wooing she would have
+deceived the very old gentleman himself, if he would have delivered her
+from the unwelcome suitor. No, no, Jessie is out of the question. It is
+my special delight to be despised by her, and I must enjoy it a little
+while longer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because the whole thing is only play to you,&quot; said Frida
+reproachfully, &quot;but she suffers from it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who? Jessie? Not at all. She is in the highest degree shocked at my
+wickedness, and I must give myself the one little satisfaction of
+leaving her still this sentiment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are mistaken; it gives her bitter pain to be obliged to judge you
+so. I know how she has wept over it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave sprang up as if electrified.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is that true? Have you really seen it? She has wept?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida looked with unmeasured surprise at his beaming face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you are glad of it. Can you really blame her if she has a mistaken
+opinion of you when you have caused that mistake? Can you be so
+revengeful as to torment her for it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! the wisdom of sixteen years!&quot; cried Gustave, bursting into
+irrepressible laughter. &quot;You will defend your friend against me, will
+you?--against me? You are indeed very wise for your years, my little
+Frida, but of such things you understand nothing, and, indeed, it is
+not necessary. You can still wait a couple of years. But now tell me
+all about it! When did Jessie weep? What did she cry for? How do you
+know that the tears concerned me? Tell me, tell me, or I shall die of
+impatience!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His face indeed betrayed the highest excitement, and he seemed actually
+to devour the words from the girl's lips. Frida seemed certainly to
+know nothing of such things, for she looked astonished to the last
+degree, but yielded at last to his urgency.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Jessie asked me seriously a short time ago if I would really entrust
+my whole future to such an egoist as you. I defended you, awkwardly
+enough, as I dared not betray you, and was obliged to submit to all the
+reproaches heaped on you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And then?&quot; asked Gustave breathlessly, &quot;and then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then, in the midst of the conversation, Jessie suddenly burst into
+tears, and cried--'You are blind, Frida; you persist in your blindness,
+and yet I have only your happiness in view! You don't know what
+dreadful pain it gives me to have to place this man in such a light
+before you, or what I would give if he stood as pure and high in my
+eyes as in yours!' And then she rushed away and locked herself in her
+room. But I know that she cried for hours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is incomparable, heavenly news!&quot; cried Gustave, in fullest
+delight. &quot;Child, you do not know how cleverly you have observed. Come,
+I must give you a kiss for it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And with that he seized the girl in his arms and kissed her heartily on
+both cheeks.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="continue">A shadow fell on the entrance of the arbour--there stood Sandow, who
+had returned to fetch his forgotten pocket-book, and thus became a
+witness of the scene.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For a moment he stood speechless and motionless, then he approached and
+cried, with the greatest indignation--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gustave!--Miss Palm!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The girl started violently, even Gustave turned pale as he released
+her. The catastrophe which at any price he would yet delay, had burst,
+he saw that at a glance; now he must stand firm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is all this?&quot; asked Sandow, measuring his brother with blazing
+eyes. &quot;How dare you treat thus a young girl under the shelter of my
+house, and you, Miss Palm, how could you permit such conduct? It could
+not be agreeable to you? And yet there seems already a thorough
+understanding!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida made no attempt to reply to the bitter reproaches heaped upon
+her. She looked at Gustave as if she expected him to defend her. He had
+already collected himself, and said impressively to his brother--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Listen to me, you are in error, and I will explain all to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It needs no explanation,&quot; interrupted Sandow. &quot;I have seen what you
+have been guilty of, and you will not try to deny the evidence of my
+own eyes. I always thought you frivolous, but not so dishonourable, but
+that you have, almost under the eyes of Jessie, your promised bride&quot;--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Frank, stop there!&quot; cried Gustave, with such determination that
+Sandow, although trembling with rage, was silent. &quot;I cannot allow this,
+my self-sacrifice will not go so far as that. Frida, come to me. You
+see that we must speak. He must learn the truth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida obeyed. She came to his side, and he laid his arm protectingly
+round her. Sandow looked bewildered from one to the other. The affair
+was unintelligible to him, he had clearly no presentiment of the truth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You wrong me by your accusations,&quot; said Gustave, &quot;and you wrong Frida
+too. If I kissed her I had a right to do so. She has been my charge
+from her earliest youth. The poor forsaken child was neglected by
+everyone who ought to have protected and sheltered her. I was the only
+one who recognised the right of kindred. I have used that right, and
+can support my actions by it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was astonishing how deeply earnest the voice of the irrepressible
+jester had become. At the first words a terrible presentiment seemed to
+seize Sandow. Every tinge of colour left his face, he became paler and
+paler, and with his eyes fixed on Frida, he repeated in a tuneless and
+mechanical voice--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your right of kindred? What--what do you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave raised the head of the girl, which leant on his shoulder, and
+turned the face full towards his brother.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you have not yet guessed, then read it in this face, perhaps it
+will now be clear to you. What likeness is it that you have remembered
+there. I have certainly deceived you, been forced to deceive you since
+you thrust every possibility of an understanding from you. Then I
+seized the only means, and brought Frida to you. I thought you would by
+degrees learn to comprehend the feeling which warmed your half-frozen
+heart, I thought it must at last dawn upon you, that the stranger who
+attracted you so powerfully had a right to your love. That is now
+impossible, the discovery has come too suddenly and unexpectedly, but
+look at those features, they are your own. For long years you have
+suffered under a dark and gloomy illusion, and have punished a
+guiltless child for the guilt of the mother. You awake at last and open
+your arms to her--to your own, your neglected child.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A long oppressive silence followed these words. Sandow staggered, and
+for a moment it seemed as if he would give way altogether, but he stood
+upright. His face worked terribly, and his breast rose and fell quickly
+with the gasping breath, but he spoke no word.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come, Frida!&quot; said Gustave gently, &quot;come to your father, you see he
+waits for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He drew her forwards and would have led her to her father, but he had
+now regained his power of speech. He made a movement as if to thrust
+her from him, and hoarse and roughly cried--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Back! So easy a victory you need not expect. Now I see through the
+whole comedy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Comedy!&quot; repeated Gustave, deeply hurt. &quot;Frank, in such a moment can
+you speak thus.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And what else is it?&quot; broke out Sandow. &quot;What else do you call that
+miserable jugglery which you have carried on behind by back? So, for
+weeks past I have been surrounded in my own house, with lies and
+deceit. And even Jessie has joined you; without her help it would have
+been impossible. All have conspired against me. You,&quot; he turned to
+Frida as if he would pour all his rage and scorn upon her devoted head,
+but he encountered the girl's eyes, and the words died on his lips.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was silent for some moments, and then continued with the bitterest
+contempt--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No doubt they described to you in very enticing colours the benefit of
+having a father from whom you might inherit wealth, and who could give
+you a brilliant position in life. That is why you have stolen into my
+house with lies. But what I swore when I left Europe that I stand by. I
+have no child, will have none, were the law ten times to adjudge me
+one. Go back over the sea to whence you came. I will not be the victim
+of deceit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is what I feared,&quot; said Gustave, half aloud. &quot;Frida,&quot; he stepped
+quickly to her, &quot;now you must rouse the feelings of a father. You see
+he will not listen to me; to you he must, and will listen. Speak, then,
+at all events open your lips, do you not feel what hangs on this
+moment?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Frida spoke not, and did not open her lips, which were convulsively
+pressed together. She was deadly pale, and in her face was the same
+expression of hard, settled obstinacy which disfigured her father's
+countenance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let me alone, Uncle Gustave,&quot; she replied, &quot;I cannot entreat now, and
+if my life depended on it, I could not. I will only tell my father I am
+innocent of the 'deceit' with which he reproaches me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The delicate form was suddenly drawn up to its full height, the dark
+eyes blazed, and the deeply injured feelings burst forth, passionately
+overflowing all bounds, like a stream which can no longer be
+controlled.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You need not repulse me so harshly, I should have gone in the moment
+when it became clear to me that the one thing I sought here--my
+father's heart--was denied me. I have never known a parent's love. My
+mother was estranged from me, of my father I only knew that he lived on
+this side the Atlantic, and had cast me off because he hated my mother.
+I came against my will, because I neither knew nor loved you. I only
+feared you. I came because my uncle said that you were lonely and
+embittered, and in spite of your wealth had no happiness in life; that
+you needed love, and that I alone could give it to you. By those means
+he forced me to follow him, in spite of my opposition, and by those
+means has he ever prevented me when I begged to return home. But now he
+will not wish to detain me, and if he did, I would tear myself away.
+Keep your wealth, father, that which you think has brought me to you.
+It has brought no blessing to you; I knew it long ago, and hear it
+again in your words. If you were poor and desolate I would try to love
+you, now I cannot. I will leave you within the hour!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The unmeasured violence with which these words were spoken, or rather
+with which they rushed from Frida's lips had something terrible in it,
+but it also betrayed something which produced a more powerful effect
+than all the prayers and petitions could have done--the resemblance
+between the father and the daughter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the ordinary course of life the resemblance between the girl of
+sixteen and the already grey-haired man might have disappeared, or only
+have been remarkable occasionally; here, in the moment of highest
+excitement, it found such overwhelming, such convincing expression,
+that every doubt vanished on the spot.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow must have seen it whether he would or not. Those were his eyes,
+which flamed before him, that was his voice which rang in his ears,
+that was his own dark, unbending obstinacy which now turned against
+himself. Trait by trait he saw himself reproduced in his daughter. The
+voice of blood and nature spoke so loud and convincingly that even the
+long treasured illusion of the father began to yield.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida turned to her uncle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In an hour I shall be ready to start! Forgive me, Uncle Gustave, that
+I have so badly carried out all your teaching, that I have rendered
+useless all your self-sacrifice, but I cannot do otherwise!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She threw herself wildly on his breast, but only for a moment, then she
+tore herself away, fled past her father, and rushed like a hunted thing
+through the garden towards the house.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As Sandow saw his daughter in his brother's arms, he made a movement as
+if to tear her away, but his hand fell powerless by his side, and he
+sank as if crushed upon a seat, and buried his face in his hands.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave, on his side, made no attempt to detain his niece. He stood
+quietly there with folded arms and watched his brother. At last he
+asked--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you believe it now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow raised himself; he tried to reply, but the words failed him, and
+no sound came from his lips.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thought this encounter must have convinced you,&quot; continued Gustave.
+&quot;The likeness is really startling. You are reflected in your child as
+in a mirror. Frank, if you do not believe this testimony I have indeed
+lost all hope.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow passed his hand over his brow, bedewed with cold sweat, and
+looked towards the house, where Frida had long since vanished.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Call her back!&quot; said he, hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That would be labour in vain, she would not listen to me. Would you
+return if you had been so driven away? Frida is her father's daughter,
+she will not approach you again--you must fetch her yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again silence, but this only lasted for a minute, then Sandow rose,
+slowly and hesitatingly, but he rose. Gustave laid his hand upon his
+arm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;One word, Frank, before you go. Frida knows of the past only what she
+was compelled to know, not one syllable more. She does not dream <i>why</i>
+you have driven her away, nor what fearful suspicion has kept her all
+these years from her father's heart. I could not bring myself to reveal
+that to the child. She believes that you hated her mother because she
+was unhappy in her marriage with you, left you and married another man,
+and that this hatred has descended upon her. This reason satisfied her,
+she asked for no other, so let it remain. I think you will understand
+that I could not let your daughter look into the depth of your domestic
+misery, and concealed the worst from her. If you do not mention it she
+need never learn it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I--thank you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The elder brother seized the hand of the younger, the latter returned
+the pressure heartily and firmly. Then Sandow turned and went rapidly
+away.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is going to her,&quot; said Gustave, with a sigh of relief. &quot;God be
+thanked; now they can arrange the rest together.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="continue">Frida had fled to her own room in the upper floor of the villa. Another
+might have given way to tears, or have poured out her heart to the
+sympathizing Jessie; this girl did neither; but with restless haste
+made the preparations for her journey.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The harsh repulse of her father, which burnt like fire into her soul,
+left her only one thought. Away out of this house from which he wished
+to drive her, away as quick as possible.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida had drawn out her travelling trunk, which still stood in the
+corner of the apartment, and collected her things together. She did it
+silently, tearlessly, but with a stormy haste, as if she would escape
+some misfortune. She knelt before the open box and was in the act of
+laying her dresses in it, when a step sounded outside. It must be her
+uncle who was looking for her, she knew that he would come to her, and
+would beg him to take her to an hotel. There they could arrange about
+her return home. She would be docile, obedient in everything, only he
+must not attempt to keep her longer here. The steps came nearer, the
+door opened, and on the threshold stood--her father!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida trembled violently, the shawl which she held in her hand fell to
+the ground, and she stood as if rooted to the spot.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow entered and shut the door; he looked at the open box and the
+things scattered around.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are going?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Question and answer were alike short and abrupt. It seemed as if the
+gulf between father and daughter would again open wide. Sandow was
+silent for a few moments, he visibly struggled with himself; at last he
+said--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come to me, Frida!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She rose slowly, stood a moment as if undecided, and then approached
+slowly, till she stood close before her father. He put his arm round
+her, and with the other hand raised her head. Bending over her he
+examined line by line, feature by feature, and his eyes seemed
+literally to pierce into her countenance. The old suspicion arose once
+more, and for the last time, but it vanished by degrees, as the father
+saw his own features reproduced in his child.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A deep, deep sigh burst from Sandow's breast, and the half anxiously
+seeking, half threatening look, melted into tears, which fell hot and
+heavy on Frida's brow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Just now I gave you great pain,&quot; said he, &quot;but do you think it was
+easy to me to drive from me the one thing that could give me joy.
+Gustave is right; it has been a terrible delusion, may it be forgotten
+for ever. My child,&quot; his voice broke in deepest emotion, &quot;will you love
+your father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A joyful cry burst from the daughter's lips. At this tone, the first
+which seemed really to come from the heart, vanished the bitterness of
+the last hour, vanished also the recollection of the long years of
+separation and estrangement.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida threw both arms round her father's neck, and as he pressed her
+with a burst of tenderness to his breast, they both felt that the
+gloomy shadow which had so long separated them, had vanished for ever!</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="continue">Meanwhile Gustave had also returned slowly to the house. As he entered
+the drawing-room, Jessie came to him full of uneasiness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mr. Sandow, pray, pray tell me what has happened. Ten minutes ago
+Frida rushed into my room, threw her arms round my neck, and wished me
+good-bye. She seemed quite beside herself, and declared that she must
+go, she could not stay another hour, would answer no questions, but
+referred me to you for all explanations. What has happened?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What I feared, if the discovery could not be postponed. An accident
+betrayed our secret to my brother, and we were obliged to confess the
+truth. His auger at the deception burst forth with great violence, and
+was poured unsparingly upon us both. Frida could not support this, she
+declared she would go at once, and now is, most probably, making the
+necessary preparations for her journey.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you are not with her!&quot; cried Jessie. &quot;You have not protected and
+supported her! Can you leave her alone at such a moment? Go to her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should only be in the way,&quot; declared Gustave, with a composure which
+appeared to Miss Clifford as the height of selfishness. &quot;What remains
+to be done Frida must fight out alone. I may, at last, be allowed to
+think of myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His eyes, which rested on Jessie's face, beamed again as when Frida had
+made a certain revelation to him. Lost in this gaze, he quite forgot
+that his words must give rise to fresh misunderstanding, and this
+indeed happened in fullest measure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;All this while you have only thought too much of yourself!&quot; replied
+Jessie, her excitement rising, &quot;but if there is one spark of love in
+your breast, you must feel that your place is at the side of your
+betrothed bride.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave smiled, and stepped close to the indignant girl, while he said
+impressively--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Frida is not, and has never been, betrothed to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not betrothed to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No; if you remember, it was expressly as my <i>protégée</i> I introduced
+her. It was you, Miss Clifford, who took the other connection for
+granted, and I left you in your error. But now, when I have ceased to
+play the part of protector, I may acknowledge to you that my
+inclinations were directed to quite another quarter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He bent over her hand, and pressed a passionate kiss upon it, which
+amply explained his words, but the game which he had so boldly carried
+on was now to be revenged on him. He had too long played the part of
+the heartless egoist, and must now do penance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie snatched her hand away with the greatest indignation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mr. Sandow, you are going too far! So now, when my guardian repulses
+Frida, when you see the impossibility of gaining his consent, you dare
+to approach me! You even venture to deny your bride before me, and to
+give the whole thing out as a farce. That is really too much!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But Miss Clifford--for heaven's sake!&quot; cried Gustave, now seriously
+disturbed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She would not allow him to speak, but continued, as if beside herself--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I knew long ago, when you laid such stress upon the word <i>protégée</i>,
+that you were leaving a way of escape open. If Frida and fortune could
+both be won, well and good; if only fortune, Frida must go. There would
+still remain the heiress, who in the first place was intended for you,
+and this heiress you would secure while the forsaken, deceived girl was
+still under our roof. I have already experienced bitter disappointment
+with respect to your character, but such disgraceful disregard of truth
+and good faith I had not expected, even from you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A flood of tears choked her voice. Gustave tried prayers, entreaties,
+explanations; all were in vain. She hurried into the adjoining room,
+and when he tried to follow her she drew the bolt inside. Directly
+after he heard her leave that room also by another door, so that his
+words could no longer reach her. Left thus in the lurch, Gustave began
+to give vent to his anger.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This is really too bad! This is what I have gained by sacrificing
+myself to the interests of others! My brother bursts upon me raging and
+storming because I give a caress to my own niece, and now I am treated
+like a criminal because I am too indifferent to her. Really, I ought to
+have taken Jessie into our confidence. This comes of too great a supply
+of high spirits. The thing amused me, and she--now she cries like one
+in the depths of despair. Now perhaps I may wait till tomorrow without
+her reappearing, and the misunderstanding should be brought to an end
+at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Despairingly he stamped with his foot, when suddenly a voice behind him
+said--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I beg pardon--but I was directed here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave started and looked round. At the principal entrance of the
+drawing-room stood a stranger, a little man with a round face, who,
+bowing politely, said--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have I the honour of addressing the head of the house of Clifford?&quot; He
+looked rather nervous, for Gustave's violent pantomime had not escaped
+him. &quot;I have been to the office, and was there told that Mr. Sandow had
+already left. As my business is very urgent, I have been obliged to
+follow him out here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My brother is not visible,&quot; said Gustave irritably, for this
+interruption was in the highest degree unwelcome at such a moment. &quot;He
+has important business in hand, and cannot be disturbed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At the word &quot;brother&quot; the little gentleman bowed still more profoundly,
+and approaching with a confidential air, said--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mr. Gustave Sandow! the great German journalist! I am deeply rejoiced
+that fortune has permitted me to make the acquaintance of such a
+celebrity, a celebrity whose value is thoroughly appreciated by our
+firm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What do you want?&quot; asked Gustave, with a look which clearly expressed
+a burning desire to show the admirer of his greatness to the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am an agent of Jenkins and Co.,&quot; explained the stranger, with an air
+of great self-satisfaction. &quot;I arrived here today with a number of
+emigrants, and found myself obliged to call upon our honoured
+correspondent here. Since Mr. Sandow cannot be disturbed, perhaps I may
+make my statement to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Now Gustave's sorely tried patience was at an end. At a moment of such
+anxiety to receive an agent of Jenkins and Co. was beyond his power. He
+turned with great want of politeness to the bearer of the hated name--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I can receive no communications intended for my brother. Bring your
+news to-morrow to the counting-house. I would&quot;--here he suddenly
+dropped the English in which he had spoken to the American, and
+relieved his mind with a few strong German curses. &quot;I wish the devil
+would take Jenkins and Co. with all their agents to their accursed
+place in the West, that the consequences of their philanthropical
+speculation might fall on their own heads.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With this he quitted the room by another door, leaving the astonished
+agent dumb with horror. For a few minutes he looked at the door by
+which Gustave had vanished with a bewildered mien. He had not
+understood the words of the German objurgations, but so much was clear
+to him that the &quot;great German journalist&quot; had not expressed very
+benevolent wishes with regard to himself and his Company. What should
+he do? The elder Mr. Sandow invisible, and the younger--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The little gentleman shook his head thoughtfully, and said to himself--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Remarkable people, these German journalists! They are so nervous, so
+excited, one might almost say raving mad. When one pays them a
+compliment they answer by insult. Our gentlemen of the press are much
+more polite when people talk of their fame.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="continue">Jessie had locked herself in her own room, and there gave full course
+to her tears. Never in her life had she felt so profoundly unhappy, so
+despairing, as at this hour. Now she felt how her whole heart clung to
+this man, whom cost what it might she would drive from her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Long ago, while he still lived in Germany, she had treasured a secret
+interest in her guardian's brother. She did not know him, but his pen
+wove an invisible bond between them. With what glowing eagerness had
+she read his articles; with what enthusiasm had she followed the
+flights of his idealism. She felt a community of ideas between them on
+all points of thought and sentiment, and by degrees he became a sort of
+ideal to her. And now the idealist had come--to falsify his whole past
+by yielding himself to his brother's sordid speculations. Then he
+concealed the best feelings of his heart from a cowardly fear of losing
+that brother's wealth; he heaped intrigue on intrigue to secure the
+coveted riches, then denied his bride rather than risk the fortune, and
+again courted the heiress. The most miserable selfishness, the most
+paltry calculations, were the mainsprings of his actions. Jessie hated
+and despised him with all her soul, but that she was forced to do so,
+that it was precisely this man whom she must despise, tore her very
+heart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She had thrown herself on her couch, and buried her face in the
+cushions, smothering there her sobs, when suddenly she heard her name
+called, and springing up, she was startled to see Gustave Sandow
+standing in the middle of the room. She passionately cried--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mr. Sandow, how do you come here? I thought&quot;--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, you bolted the drawing-room door,&quot; interrupted Gustave, &quot;and you
+ordered your maid to admit no one, but in spite of bolts and lady's
+maid I am here. I must speak to you; it is necessary for your sake as
+well as mine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I will not listen!&quot; cried Jessie, with a vain attempt at
+self-control.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I will be heard!&quot; replied Gustave. &quot;At first I thought of sending
+Frida as a mediator, but soon gave up the idea. It would have taken too
+long. She is still with her father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;With whom?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;With her father--my brother!&quot; Jessie stood as if petrified. The
+revelation was so sudden that she could not at first realize it, till
+Gustave said--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;May I now justify myself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then through her soul flashed hope and happiness. She allowed him to
+take her hand and to lead her to the sofa, and even to place himself
+beside her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have a confession to make to you, Miss Clifford,&quot; he began, &quot;and to
+make all clear to you I must go far back into my brother's past life.
+By-and-bye, I may do it at greater length, but now I will only tell you
+enough to justify myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He detained her hand in his, and Jessie left it unresistingly there.
+She began to believe in the possibility of justification.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My brother's domestic life was one of bitter experience. An apparently
+happy wedded life ended in a terrible discovery. He found himself
+betrayed by his wife and his dearest friend, and the circumstances of
+the discovery were such that with his domestic happiness fell also his
+outward prosperity. He neither would nor could remain longer at home,
+and went to America, where your parents received him. But in Germany he
+had left his daughter, his only child, who at that time was almost an
+infant. In his hatred, his bitterness against all, he would not
+acknowledge the child; it remained with the mother, who after the
+necessary divorce had married that man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He paused a moment. Jessie listened in breathless anticipation;
+over her pale, tear-stained face crept a slight flush, as Gustave
+continued--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I was then at the university, and had no means of supporting Frida,
+and all my representations in her behalf were fruitless. But I have
+never forsaken my little niece. The poor child had a comfortless youth
+in that family where her very presence was a rock of offence. Endured
+against his will by her step-father, treated by her own mother with
+indifference, nay, almost with aversion, she stood a stranger among her
+step-brothers and sisters, and with every year more keenly felt her
+loneliness. As soon as my means permitted, I assumed the rights of an
+uncle, which were certainly readily granted me, and extricated my niece
+from these surroundings. I placed her at school, where she remained
+till her mother's death. That death broke the bond which caused
+constant bitterness to my brother, and now I determined to come to
+America and fight for her rights, cost what it might.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And that was your reason for coming to America?&quot; said Jessie, timidly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That alone! I had already made an attempt by letter, but was most
+harshly repulsed by Frank. He threatened to break off all
+correspondence with me if I ever touched on the subject again. So then
+I placed all my hopes on the effect of Frida's own presence, but it at
+first seemed impossible to carry out this plan. I could not allow a
+young girl like that to cross the sea alone, and if she had appeared in
+my company my brother would have instantly had his suspicions roused.
+Then the death of your father, Miss Clifford, obliged him to think of a
+new partner, and his thoughts turned to me. Under ordinary
+circumstances the invitation to cast overboard my fatherland, my
+calling, and my independence, yes, the very heart and soul of my former
+life, for the sake of material interests, would have met with the most
+decided refusal; now it seemed like a sign from heaven itself. I
+apparently yielded, and started with Frida. She remained in New York
+while I viewed the field of action, and then introduced her under an
+assumed name into her father's house. You know what followed. The
+discovery has cost a last but severe struggle. There was a scene, which
+threatened to destroy all, but at last the father's heart awoke in my
+brother's bosom, and now he is reconciled with his child!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie sat with eyes cast down and glowing cheeks while she listened to
+this recital, which took one thorn after another from her breast. It
+seemed to her as if she herself were released from a gloomy oppression,
+now that the veil which so long had covered the &quot;egoist&quot; had fallen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Miss Clifford, now it is all up with the inheritance,&quot; said
+Gustave mischievously. &quot;It was indeed offered to me, and I have had a
+hard fight for it, but only in the interest of the rightful heiress.
+Unfortunately, I must also resign the honour of becoming a partner in
+the house of Clifford. The editor and staff of the <i>K--sche Zeitung</i>
+have bound me by a solemn oath as soon as my leave of absence is at an
+end; and in the long run indeed 'keeping accounts' does not appeal
+very strongly to me. I shall take up my old colours again, which,
+by-the-bye, I have not so shamefully deserted as you supposed. Do you
+still find my presence at the office desk so contemptible an action?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie looked at him, ashamed, confused, yet with a feeling of intense
+happiness--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have wronged you, Mr. Sandow; it was certainly your own fault,
+but--I beg your pardon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She could not offer him her hand, for he had never released it, but he
+pressed a kiss upon it which this time was quite patiently endured.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have for weeks past rejoiced at the thought of this explanation,&quot;
+said he, laughing. &quot;Do you think I would have endured my brother's
+arbitrary manner and your contempt even for an hour, had I not been
+certain of your petition at the end?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And Frida is really only your adopted child?&quot; asked Jessie, with a
+throbbing heart, which could not be controlled. &quot;You do not love her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Frida is my dear niece, and I am her venerated uncle, with that our
+mutual relation is exhausted. Now that she has found her father, I am
+become superfluous as an object of respect. But now that we are on the
+subject of love, Jessie, I have one question to put to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The question seemed to be guessed, for Jessie's face was bathed in
+blushes. She dared not look up, but that was also unnecessary, for
+Gustave was already at her feet, so she was compelled to look down at
+him, as he, with warmest devotion, whispered--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dearest, my beloved Jessie, it is now my turn to beg your pardon. I
+have intrigued, I have lied even to you, that cannot be denied, but I
+have also suffered for it, for you have compelled me to hear some
+bitter strictures. But one thing has remained real and true in me since
+our first meeting--the feeling which awoke in me when I first saw those
+blue eyes! So you must be gracious to me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie seemed certainly inclined to grace, that the blue eyes said
+before the lips could express it. He sprang up full of passionate joy,
+and the pardon was confirmed in every point, indeed, no necessary
+formalities were omitted.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Half an hour later the two entered Frida's room, where Sandow still sat
+with his daughter. Gustave had drawn Jessie's hand within his arm, and
+now solemnly led her to his brother.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Frank,&quot; said he, &quot;in your inconsiderate plan was one sensible
+idea--indeed a very sensible one--yes, my little Frida, do not make
+such astonished eyes at your uncle and your future aunt--these are
+things which you do not understand; with our mutual penetration we have
+discovered that one sensible idea, and now introduce ourselves to you
+as an engaged couple.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p class="continue">It was the next morning. After breakfast the two brothers had withdrawn
+to the study of the elder one, and were alone there. Sandow sat at the
+writing-table; on his countenance lay an expression which for long
+years had never dwelt there, a shimmer of the happiness of former days,
+but his brow was still clouded as he spoke to his brother, who leant
+against the window opposite to him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then you will really forsake me and carry Jessie off to Germany? I
+hoped that when Clifford's daughter should belong to you, you would
+also become his successor in business, and thus fulfil his dearest
+wish. You need not on that account give up your pen altogether, the
+real weight of business will rest as before on my shoulders. Our press
+is mightier and more influential than yours, here you would find a
+freer and wider field than in our native land. Consider it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It requires no consideration,&quot; said Gustave with decision. &quot;I can only
+give my whole interest and energy to one occupation. Merchant and
+<i>litterateur</i>; that won't do! Were the intellectual horizon here ten
+times as wide, every chord of my heart is bound to my home, I can only
+there work and create. And then we should never do as partners. For a
+few weeks I could wear the mask of a subordinate and be silent to all,
+for on Frida's account I wished to prevent a breach. But now Frank! I
+must tell you plainly that your business practice, your whole system,
+would render it impossible for us ever to get on together. It led you
+to a close union with Jenkins--in that lies your condemnation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow did not spring up, as at such a declaration he would certainly
+have done before, but his brow took a deeper shade.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You look at things from one point of view and I from another. Your
+calling gives you perfect liberty in act and thought, I stand amidst
+all kinds of antagonistic interest, and cannot always choose my means.
+I wish&quot;--he paused a moment, and then overcoming himself continued--&quot;I
+wish I had not entered on this partnership with Jenkins. But it has
+happened, and I cannot extricate myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Can you really not? Is there no way out of it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have told you that hundreds of thousands are invested in this
+affair, and run the risk of losing all if it does not succeed, or if I
+withdraw from it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But you must withdraw whatever the loss may be!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow looked at him as if he did not believe his ears.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At the risk of such a loss? Are you serious? Have you any idea of what
+such a sum means? I have done what I could, I have made the attempt to
+separate from Jenkins, to my injury--for he has become more obstinate
+in consequence. In his last letter he asked with ill-concealed
+suspicion, if I really required my money, since I appeared so anxious
+to withdraw my capital. He seems to suspect losses on my side, perhaps
+doubts my credit, and for a merchant that is the most dangerous thing
+that can happen. I must enter upon the thing with redoubled energy if I
+would repair such an imprudence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yesterday I gave you your child,&quot; said Gustave earnestly, &quot;and I
+believe that in her you have won more than you will lose here. For
+Frida's sake I hoped you would withdraw from a speculation which
+hinders you from meeting your daughter's eyes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow turned quickly away, but his voice had the old harsh sound as he
+replied--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Just for Frida's sake! Shall I impoverish my newly-found child? Shall
+I rob her of the half of her fortune?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She will have enough in the other half, and I do not believe that the
+whole will bring a blessing, when it is retained at such a price.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Silence! You understand nothing about it. A retreat at any risk, such
+as you suggest is an impossibility, so not another word on the subject!
+Naturally, I release you from your promise, for, knowing you as I do
+now, I am sure that you have never written the articles.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The first is long since ready,&quot; replied Gustave coldly. &quot;It will
+certainly be also the last, one such will suffice. I intended showing
+you the MSS. to-day. Here it is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He drew some pages of writing from his pocket, and offered them to his
+brother, who took them hesitatingly, and looked questioning and
+doubtfully at him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Read,&quot; said Gustave simply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow began to read, at first slowly, but with, ever-increasing
+haste. He turned over the leaves with a trembling hand, and glanced
+over them. His face grew darker, and breaking off in the midst he threw
+the manuscript violently on the table.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you out of your mind! You have written, you will publish that! It
+is terrible what you there expose to the world!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave drew himself up to his full height, and stepped up close to his
+brother.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Terrible! indeed it is! And the most terrible part is, that all these
+things are true. I have been on the spot, and can pledge my honour for
+every word that I have written there. Draw back, Frank, while there is
+yet time. This article, appearing in the <i>K--sche Zeitung</i>, repeated
+throughout the entire German press, cannot fail in its working. The
+Consulate, the Ministry will be obliged to notice it. They will take
+care that no one falls unwarned into the hands of Jenkin's and Co.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are very proud of the wonderful effect of your pen!&quot; cried Sandow
+beside himself. &quot;You seem to have forgotten that I am an equal
+shareholder with Jenkins, and that when you describe the place in such
+revolting colours, every word is directed against the wealth and honour
+of your brother. You will not only ruin me by this, but represent me as
+a scoundrel in the eyes of all the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No. I shall not do that, for you will separate yourself altogether
+from this rascally company, and I shall add, that my brother, who had
+unwittingly become involved in this speculation, retreated from it at a
+great pecuniary sacrifice, as soon as his eyes were opened to the
+enormity of the proceeding. Declare this openly to the man, if you fear
+that merely withdrawing will be injurious to your credit. The truth,
+here too, is the best.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you think that Jenkins would believe me, the merchant, the head of
+the house of Clifford, guilty of such an insane trick. He would simply
+believe I had lost my senses.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is possible, for since this honourable personage has no conscience
+himself, he would not understand its existence in anyone else.
+Nevertheless, you must try every means.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow walked wildly up and down the room for a few minutes, at last he
+stopped and said with gasping breath--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You do not know what it is to seize a wasp's nest. In Europe you would
+at least be safe from their stings, while I must remain here open to
+all. Jenkins would never forgive me if my name were attached to any
+such revelations. He is influential enough to set against me all who
+are concerned in it, and they are counted by hundreds. You do not know
+the iron ring of interest which surrounds and binds us together. One
+hangs on the other, one supports the other. Woe to him who tears
+himself away and offers battle to his former companions. They all swear
+to destroy him. His credit is undermined, his plans crossed, he himself
+calumniated and harassed till he is ruined. Just now I could not
+support such attacks. Jessie's money will be lost to the firm, this
+speculation has weakened my own means to the last degree; should it
+fail, for me it will be the beginning of ruin. I speak as unreservedly
+to you as you have to me, and now go and publish your discovery to all
+the world!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He paused, overwhelmed with excitement; Gustave looked darkly before
+him, his brow, too, bore the marks of deep and anxious care.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I did not think that you were so surrounded and entangled on every
+side. That comes from this execrable system of business! Well then&quot;--he
+laid his hand upon the paper--&quot;destroy this, I will not write it again.
+I am silent when you assure me that my words will be your ruin. But the
+consequences are on your head! You must answer for every human life
+which is lost in that den of fever.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gustave, you are killing me!&quot; groaned Sandow sinking into a chair.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The door was gently opened and the servant announced that the carriage
+which usually conveyed the two gentlemen to town was at the door.
+Gustave signed to the man to withdraw, and then bending over his
+brother said--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You cannot now come to a decision. You must be calm. Let me go alone
+to the office to-day and represent you there. You are terribly agitated
+and excited, too much came on you yesterday.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow made a mute sign of assent, he might well feel that he was not
+in a condition to show his ordinary calm business demeanour to his
+subordinates. But when his brother was already at the door, he suddenly
+started up,</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;One thing--not a word to Frida! Don't bring her into the field against
+me, or you drive me to extremities.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Be tranquil, I should not have ventured that,&quot; said Gustave with
+great emphasis. &quot;It would estrange the scarcely won heart of your
+child--perhaps for ever. Good-bye Frank.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">About an hour later Frida entered her father's room, where he was still
+pacing restlessly up and down. She started when she saw him, for his
+countenance betrayed something of the struggle of the past hours. He
+tried indeed to conceal his agitation, and avoided giving a direct
+reply to the anxious inquiries of his daughter, but still she saw that
+he was devoured by feverish anxiety. The girl was still too much a
+stranger to venture on forcing his confidence by prayers and
+entreaties, but she looked with secret dread at the gloomy shadow which
+brooded over the brow, where nothing but joy and pardon should have
+been seen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly Gustave entered with Jessie; he appeared to have just returned
+from town, for he still held his hat and gloves; he had, however, been
+scarcely an hour absent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have brought Jessie with me,&quot; he said in his usual cheerful manner,
+&quot;and since Frida is also here, we can hold another family council in
+your room. You are surprised to see me again so soon, Frank. I wished
+to relieve you of all business affairs to-day, but have been compelled
+to come to you for a decision. At the office I found some emigrants who
+would not be satisfied without seeing you, and as you were not coming
+to town today, I have brought them out here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Gustave brought them out in his own carriage,&quot; said Jessie who
+had been rather astonished at seeing her future husband drive up to the
+door, with some homely peasants in the elegant equipage belonging to
+their house.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They are Germans, fellow-countrymen, indeed they are from our own
+little native place,&quot; added Gustave quickly. &quot;They might not have been
+able to find their way here alone, so I considered it best to bring
+them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That was quite unnecessary,&quot; said Sandow uneasily, and displeased at
+what he foresaw would be a last and decisive attack. &quot;The thing could
+have waited till to-morrow. What have I personally to do with the
+wanderers? They can receive every information at the office. You have
+really brought them all here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes all, excepting the agent of Jenkins and Co. He was here yesterday
+with the object of speaking to you; I put him off till this morning,
+and arrived just in time to rescue these people from him; for he seemed
+resolved not to let them go till he had given them the fullest
+particulars. You will of course receive them; I promised them
+positively an interview with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And without leaving his brother time to refuse, he opened the door of
+the adjoining room, and invited the men who were waiting there to
+enter. The two girls were about to retire when they found a business
+interview was to take place, but Gustave held Jessie's arm fast, and
+said softly but impressively to her and his niece--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stay, both of you. I want you, but particularly Frida!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Meanwhile the strangers had entered. There were three men, robust
+country folk, with sunburnt faces and toil-hardened hands. The eldest,
+a man of middle age, appeared highly respectable in manner and dress.
+The two others were younger and looked more necessitous. They stood
+awkwardly near the door, while their leader made a few steps forward.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is my brother,&quot; said Gustave, directing their attention to him.
+&quot;Speak quite freely and fearlessly to him. Under the present
+circumstances, he only can give you the best advice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God be with you, Mr. Sandow!&quot; began the leader, with the touching
+German salutation, usual in his province, and with a strong, harsh
+provincial accent. &quot;We are thankful to find Germans here, with whom we
+can speak an honest word. At your office where we at first sought you,
+we were ordered here and there, and were quite bewildered, till
+fortunately your brother appeared. He immediately took our part, and
+has been very rough with the agent who would not let us see you. But he
+was right then, for long ago we lost all confidence in the whole band.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow rose; he felt the storm approach, and cast a threatening,
+reproachful glance at the brother who had thus entangled him. But the
+merchant well knew that he must not allow the strangers to have any
+idea of his position, but must preserve his usual business air. He
+asked--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What do you want with me, and what am I to advise you upon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The peasant looked at his two companions as if he expected them to
+speak, but as they remained silent and made energetic signs for him to
+continue, he alone replied--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We have fallen into a horrible trap, and know no way out of it. Before
+leaving Germany we were recommended to Jenkins and Company, and on
+arriving in New York were received by their agent. They promised us a
+mine of wealth, and at their office one seemed to believe that in the
+far west lay an earthly paradise. But on the way here we accidentally
+met a few Germans, who had been several years in America, and they told
+another tale. They bade us beware of this Jenkins and his western
+paradise. He was a regular cutthroat, and had already brought many to
+misery. We should all be ruined in his forests, and what all his other
+fine things might be. Then we felt stunned! The agent, who was
+travelling in another compartment, was furious when we plainly told him
+what we had heard, but as I said before, we had lost all confidence in
+him, and wished to consider the thing again before we travelled so many
+more hundred miles westward.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave, who stood beside Jessie, listened with apparent calm. She
+looked rather frightened; she did not know all the circumstances, but
+could easily feel that this meant more than an ordinary business
+affair.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frida, on the other hand, listened with breathless excitement to the
+words which bore such singular resemblance to those which, weeks ago,
+she had spoken to her father. But what could he have to do with this
+emigration scheme?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We were directed to your bank, Mr. Sandow,&quot; continued the man, &quot;for
+the signing the contract and payment for the land. We heard in the
+neighbourhood that you were a German, and indeed out of our own
+province. Then I called together the others and said, 'Children, now
+there is no more difficulty; we will go to our countryman and lay the
+thing before him. He is a German, so will, no doubt, have a conscience,
+and will not send his fellow-countrymen to their destruction!'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">If Sandow had not before realised to the full extent, what a sin
+his speculation was, he learnt it in this hour, and the simple,
+true-hearted words of the peasant burnt into his soul, as the bitterest
+reproaches could not have done.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was torture that he endured, but the worst was to come. Frida crept
+to his side. He did not look at her at that moment, he could not, but
+he felt the anxious, imploring look, and the trembling of the hand
+which clasped his own.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now it is your turn to speak,&quot; said the man, turning half angrily to
+his companions, who had entirely left the management of the affair to
+him. &quot;You, too, have wives and children, and have spent your last penny
+on the journey. Yes, Mr. Sandow, there are poor devils among us who
+have nothing but their strong arms, and can count on nothing but their
+labour. Some of us are certainly better off, and so we thought one
+could help the other in the new colony. There are about eighty of us,
+besides a dozen children, and for the poor little ones it would indeed
+be bad if things over there are as we have been told. So give us
+advice, <i>Herr Landsmann</i>! If you say to us, 'Go,' then in God's name we
+shall start early to-morrow, and hope for the best. It will be God
+Himself who has brought us to you, and we shall thank Him from the
+bottom of our hearts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow leant heavily on the table which stood before him. Only by
+exerting the utmost force of will was he able to appear collected. Only
+Gustave knew what was raging in his heart, and he now decided to break
+the long and painful pause which had followed the last words.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have no fear!&quot; he cried. &quot;You see my brother has himself a child, an
+only daughter, and thus he knows what the life and health of your
+little ones is to you. His advice can be implicitly followed. Now,
+Frank, what do you advise our countrymen to do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow looked at the three men, whose eyes rested anxiously, yet
+confidingly, on his face, then at his daughter, and suddenly standing
+erect, he cried--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not go there!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The men started back, and looked at each other, and then at the
+merchant, who had given them this strange advice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But you are connected with this company?&quot; cried the one, and the
+others confirmed his words. &quot;Yes, indeed, you are one of them!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In this affair I have been deceived myself,&quot; explained Sandow. &quot;It is
+only lately that I have learnt exactly the nature of the land, of which
+I am certainly one of the owners, and I know that it is not suited for
+colonization. I will, therefore, make no contract with you, as I intend
+to withdraw from my obligations and give up the whole undertaking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Germans had no suspicion what a sacrifice their countryman had made
+for them, or at what price their rescue had been bought. They looked
+quite helpless and despairing, and their leader said with startled
+manner--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This is an abominable business? We Lave made and paid for this long
+journey, and here we are in America. We cannot return, we must not
+proceed; we are betrayed and sold in a strange country. Mr. Sandow, you
+must advise us again, you mean well by us that we can see, or you would
+not deal such a blow at your own interest. Tell us what to do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A heavy, troubled breath came from the breast of the merchant. Nothing
+was spared him to the last detail, but he had gone too far to retreat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Go to the German Consul in this town,&quot; he replied, &quot;and lay your case
+before him. As far as I know there is a German company in New York,
+which has also undertaken the colonization of the West, and which is
+under the special protection of our Consulate. Their possessions are
+not extremely distant from the original object of your journey, the
+route is almost the same. More particulars you will learn of the Consul
+himself; you may place implicit confidence in him, and he will assist
+you by every means in his power.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The faces of the poor men cleared wonderfully at this intelligence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank God! there is some escape for us!&quot; said the leader. &quot;We will
+start immediately so as to lose no time, and we are much indebted to
+you, sir, and to the young gentleman here. It is brave of you to retire
+from this swindling affair, as though you would not say so, we can see
+that it is a great loss to you. May God reward you for what you have
+done for us, and for our wives and children!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He offered his hand to the merchant, who took it mechanically, and the
+words of farewell with which he released the people were just as
+spiritless.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Gustave shook them all heartily by the hand, and rang the bell
+violently to summon a servant, whom he ordered to accompany them to the
+German Consulate and only to leave them at the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When they were gone, Sandow threw himself into a chair; and the
+agitation which had been so sternly repressed now claimed its rights;
+he appeared crushed beneath it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father, for God's sake what is the matter?&quot; cried Frida, throwing her
+arms round him, but now Gustave re-entered, his face actually beaming
+with triumph.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let him be, Frida, it will pass. You have indeed right to be proud of
+your father! Frank, from the moment when our countrymen stood before
+you, I was certain that you would in the end warn them against your own
+speculation, but that you would have recommended them to the other
+company, against which Jenkins quite lately published a most violent
+article in the <i>New York Revolver Press</i>, that I did not hope, and for
+that I must shake you by the hand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Sandow waved him and his proffered hand away, and pressed his
+daughter to his breast. A bitter expression rested on his lips as he
+said--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You don't know what Gustave has done to you, my child, nor what this
+hour may yet cost to your father. From to-day Jenkins will be my most
+unyielding enemy, and will never rest from attacking me. I have placed
+myself only too entirely in his hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Throw the whole thing over and come with us to Germany,&quot; cried
+Gustave. &quot;Why should you allow yourself to be tormented and harassed
+by these honourable New Yorkers, when you could live happy and
+comfortably in your native land. When Jessie is married there will be
+an end of the name of Clifford, why not also wind up the firm. Of
+course you will lose by withdrawing from the thing, but for German
+ideas you are still rich enough, and there is plenty of room for
+activity at home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What are you proposing to me!&quot; exclaimed Sandow, irritably.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Just what you proposed to me when you called me here. I think the best
+way is to turn the thing completely round. Look how Frida's face lights
+up at the thought of home! Naturally she will never again leave her
+father, wherever he may be, but it may be your lot to see her die of
+home-sickness some day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave had cleverly set the most efficacious spring in motion. Sandow
+gave a startled look at his daughter, whose eyes certainly beamed when
+her home was mentioned, and who now resignedly drooped her head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come, Jessie,&quot; said Gustave, taking the arm of his betrothed, &quot;we will
+leave them alone. I must explain all this to you, for I see that you
+only half comprehend it, and besides I feel an urgent necessity to be
+again admired by you. Yesterday you did me an extraordinary amount of
+good.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He led her away, and father and daughter remained alone. Frida required
+no explanation, he had long ago divined the circumstances, and clinging
+close to her father, she said with the deepest affection--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I knew very well when we were standing that time by the sea that you
+could never send any one into misery!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sandow looked long and deeply into the dark eyes, which now beamed with
+love and admiration. It was the first time he did so, without reading a
+reproach in them, and he felt as if redeemed to a new life.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, my child!&quot; said he softly, &quot;I could not do it, and now whatever
+may come, we will bear it together.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Meanwhile Gustave and Jessie strolled arm-in-arm through the garden,
+but at first their talk was very serious. He told her all, screening
+his brother as much as possible, whom he represented as the victim of a
+deception which had only just become clear to him. When he had
+finished, Jessie said eagerly--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gustave, even if my money had been mixed up with this, it is
+unnecessary to say that we will leave it to the uncontrolled management
+of your brother as long as he wants it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your money has never been concerned in it,&quot; Gustave informed her.
+&quot;Whatever Frank may be as a speculator, as a guardian, he is
+conscientiousness itself. He has respected your father's will to the
+fullest extent. You are and remain still an heiress, Jessie, but in
+spite of that uncomfortable peculiarity, I am resolved to marry you,
+and in four weeks, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is impossible,&quot; protested Jessie. &quot;There are so many things to
+order and prepare. You must see yourself that the time is too short.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I see nothing of the kind,&quot; declared Gustave. &quot;The business part my
+brother will arrange, everything can be settled within the time named.
+In your America everything is done at express speed, speculation,
+fortune-making, even living and dying. I do not find this custom
+unpleasant since it can be extended even to marrying, and as your
+future tyrant I require you to become my wife in four weeks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Jessie did not appear to dread this tyranny too much, but after some
+discussion she, smiling and blushing, consented, when her lover said--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At least I can stand by my brother when the first storm breaks, and it
+will not be long before it does. At the Consulate, of course, all the
+particulars will be learnt, and by the evening they will have spread
+through the whole town. That amiable agent, the admirer of my literary
+fame, will first tear his hair, and then send telegram upon telegram to
+New York. I wish I could see how Jenkins and Co. breathe fire and
+flame, and wish me in the lowest depths of hell. With God's help I hope
+to renew that pleasure whenever my articles appear. They shall learn to
+know the pen they wished to buy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But do you think really that my guardian can release himself from
+these obligations?&quot; asked Jessie.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He must, at any price! After the events of to-day there is no choice
+left him, and he is business man enough to save all that is possible.
+Jenkins will certainly make his life a misery to him, so much the
+better! Then he will be obliged to turn his eyes towards Germany, and
+we shall win him back. He will never return to his old fever for
+speculation, and here there is so much temptation to it. The ice is now
+broken, and Frida has so much of the charm of novelty about her that we
+may confidently leave the rest to her. I pledge my word on it, in a few
+years she will bring her father home to us!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They had unconsciously reached the shore, and now stood by the bench
+where Frida had sat on that memorable evening. Before them lay the sea,
+bathed in sunshine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gustave pointed across it, while he put his arm round his future wife.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There lies my native land, Jessie! In a few weeks it will also be your
+home, as it was the home of your own mother, and as such you will learn
+to love it. What my brother declared this morning may be true--that
+here the intellectual field too, is wider and freer than with us, that
+one rises more rapidly here, and wields a mightier power, even with the
+pen. With us just now, our first duty is to hold high our flag in the
+midst of the hottest fight, and to defend it with the whole strength of
+our lives. But that I will do joyfully and with all my heart, and ask
+no other reward than that my Jessie, my beloved wife, shall be
+contented with her egoist.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h3>THE END.</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr class="W90">
+<h5>Printed by Remington &amp; Co., 134, New Bond Street, W.</h5>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Partners, by E. Werner
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARTNERS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 35135-h.htm or 35135-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/1/3/35135/
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
+
+
diff --git a/35135.txt b/35135.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..301287b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35135.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,4607 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Partners, by E. Werner
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Partners
+       A Novel.
+
+Author: E. Werner
+
+Translator: H. G. Godwin
+
+Release Date: January 31, 2011 [EBook #35135]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARTNERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+   1. Page scan source:
+      http://books.google.com/books?id=WO0BAAAAQAAJ&dq
+
+   2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                          _At every Library_.
+
+                               LUCREZIA.
+
+                               _A STORY_.
+
+                          By MRS. COMYNS CARR,
+
+            _Author of_ "_North Italian Folk_," "_A Story of
+                            Autumn_," _&c_.
+
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+                            1 Vol. 10s. 6d.
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+                 REMINGTON & CO., 134, New Bond St., W.
+
+
+                         _Of all Booksellers_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                               PARTNERS.
+
+
+                                A Novel.
+
+
+
+
+                                   BY
+
+                               E. WERNER.
+
+        AUTHOR OF "SUCCESS AND HOW HE WON IT," "UNDER A CHARM,"
+                "RIVEN BONDS," "NO SURRENDER," &c., &c.
+
+
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+                     _TRANSLATED BY H. G. GODWIN_.
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+
+
+                                London:
+                           REMINGTON AND CO.,
+                          New Bond Street, W.
+                               *   *   *
+                                 1882.
+
+                        [_All Rights Reserved_.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                               PARTNERS.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+
+It was afternoon on a sunny spring day. The profound Sabbath rest and
+stillness which found no place in the incessant turmoil of the great
+commercial seaport reigned the more undisturbed around a country house
+which lay beyond the great sea of buildings near the shore, and whose
+park-like grounds stretched down to the water. It was one of those
+imposing, elegantly and luxuriously appointed villas which rich
+townspeople usually inhabit when they wish to live secure from street
+noises and confusion, and yet would be able to reach the town without
+great loss of time. In the drawing-room, whose French windows opened
+upon the garden terrace, were a lady and gentleman engaged in an eager
+and obviously earnest conversation. The cheeks of the young lady glowed
+in hot excitement, and she struggled visibly with hardly repressed
+tears, while the gentleman appeared perfectly indifferent and unmoved.
+He was a man of middle age, but with already completely grey hair, and
+grave, cold features; his whole appearance betokened the business man.
+The calm and cool indifference of his manner was not lost for a moment
+in the most exciting conversation, and even his mode of speaking was
+dry and businesslike, without a trace of any warmer feeling.
+
+"Really, Jessie," said he, "I am weary of this constant repetition of
+the old lamentations. As your guardian and relative I have undertaken
+the care of your future, and I should have thought the future which I
+lay before you acceptable enough. But such a silly, romantic, girlish
+head will never be able to judge what is for its own happiness."
+
+The silly, romantic, girlish head was at least not deficient in grace.
+Without being regularly beautiful, the fair head, the delicate, but
+very expressive features, and the rather languishing blue eyes, had
+something uncommonly attractive.
+
+At this moment, however, the youthful countenance bore the expression
+of passionate excitement, and the same excitement trembled in her voice
+when she replied--
+
+"My happiness! What you call by that name, Uncle Sandow, lies
+immeasurably far from what is happiness to me."
+
+"Will you, perhaps, tell me what misty and fantastic idea you connect
+with the word?" said Sandow, in a sarcastic tone. "Happiness is a
+brilliant position in life, in the midst of wealth, at the side of a
+husband who, under all circumstances, can be a support to you. That is
+offered to you with the hand of a man"--
+
+"Whom I don't even know," interrupted Jessie.
+
+"But whose acquaintance you will make within an hour. Besides, my
+brother is no stranger to you, even if you have not yet actually seen
+him. According to his portrait, his exterior leaves nothing to be
+wished for, and you have declared that no other inclination binds you.
+Why, then, this obstinate struggle against a union for which Gustave is
+already prepared?"
+
+"Just because he was so quickly prepared for it. I cannot--I will not
+confide my future to a man who does not for a moment hesitate to give
+up his chosen calling, his already brilliant career, because the
+prospect of a wealthy match is held out to him."
+
+Sandow shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"There again are the exaggerated ideas with which your German education
+has imbued you, and without which you were quite sentimental enough.
+Chosen calling! Brilliant career! You seem to have a very exalted idea
+of the position of a German journalist. Gustave's pen is admired and
+sought for so long as the whim of the public and the present political
+tendency last. Sooner or later that will come to an end, and then
+good-bye to his brilliant career. Here in America independence, riches,
+and the coveted post of head of a great commercial house, are offered
+to him. He would be worse than a fool to throw that up in order to
+continue to write leading articles."
+
+"That is a matter of taste, and I assure you, Uncle Sandow, it would be
+quite immaterial to me whom you might choose as a partner if you would
+not draw me within the circle of your business calculations."
+
+"I do it in your own interest. You know it was the dearest wish of your
+late father to keep your fortune in the business. He ever hoped that
+his place there would be filled by his son-in-law. It was not granted
+to him to see this himself."
+
+"No," said Jessie, softly, "for he never had the heart to force me as
+you do now."
+
+Sandow made an impatient movement.
+
+"What exaggerated expressions are these! I do not think of forcing you,
+but I require with the greatest decision that you should listen to
+reason, and not cast aside the idea of this union without farther
+consideration, merely because it does not agree with your romantic
+ideas. You are nineteen, and must now think of marriage. Ideal
+marriages, such as you dream of, do not exist. To every one who woos
+you your fortune is the great attraction. The days of disinterested
+love are long past, and when one or another plays such a comedy with
+you it is only more surely to squander your money afterwards. It is
+important that you should make that perfectly clear to yourself, or the
+inevitable disappointments may be too hard for you."
+
+An incredible heartlessness lay in the icy calm with which he reckoned
+all this up in the ears of his ward, and reduced the step on which
+depended all the dreams, illusions, all the future hopes of the young
+girl, to a flavourless calculation, of which the factor was her
+fortune.
+
+Jessie's lip trembled painfully at this merciless exposition, for the
+air of infallibility with which it was pronounced showed her that
+Sandow really expressed his inmost convictions. Had she not already
+learnt what it meant to be a good match, and to thus enchain the
+selfishness and calculations of every man with whom she came in
+contact? Even her guardian saw and respected in her only the heiress, a
+bitter thought for a young creature whose heart longed passionately for
+happiness and love.
+
+"Here you need not fear this," continued Sandow, who looked on her
+silence as a kind of assent. "This marriage offers you both similar
+advantages. With your hand Gustave receives a fortune and a high
+position in the commercial world here; through him you retain an
+interest in your father's business, and have the certainty that your
+wealth will be controlled and increased by your husband. The thing is
+so clear and simple that I cannot really comprehend your obstinate
+resistance, particularly as you have interested yourself formerly about
+Gustave, and you have always read his articles with the greatest
+enthusiasm."
+
+"Because I believed in the writer of them; because I did not imagine it
+possible that all this glowing love of country, all this enthusiasm for
+the great and beautiful, could be only phrases to be cast to the winds
+as soon as it appeared advantageous to do so."
+
+"These knights of the quill are accustomed to fine expressions," said
+Sandow slightingly. "It is a business matter. It would be hard upon
+them if they must match word and deed. Gustave has written as his
+situation and the tendency of the day demanded, and now he acts as
+reason requires. If he did not he would be useless to me as a partner.
+And now let us end the discussion. I do not urge you to decide either
+to-day or to-morrow, but await nevertheless with certainty your assent
+to my wishes."
+
+"Never!" cried Jessie, flaming out. "To belong to a man who sees in me
+merely a paragraph in a business contract; to an egoist who sacrifices
+to his material gain all that is holy and dear to others! Never!
+Never!"
+
+Sandow took little or no notice of this passionate outburst. If Jessie
+had been his daughter he would have simply commanded and forced her to
+follow his wishes, but he knew too well the limits of his power as
+guardian to attempt anything of the kind here. He knew besides that his
+long-accustomed and dreaded authority was of itself a kind of
+compulsion to the girl, and was determined to employ it.
+
+"We will leave the subject now," said he, rising. "I am going to the
+station, and expect in an hour to present my brother to you. You will
+condescend in the first place to learn to know him, and everything else
+will follow in time. Good-bye."
+
+With this he left the room, and the carriage, which had been waiting
+for him, rolled from the door.
+
+Jessie remained alone, and now, when she felt herself no longer under
+the ban of those cold, hard eyes, the long-repressed tears burst forth.
+The girl plainly did not belong to those energetic natures which set
+will against will. In these tears she betrayed all the weakness of a
+character accustomed to be directed and led, and which, in the first
+struggle to which it must arm itself, feels its own impotence.
+
+It was, indeed, the first struggle of her life. Reared in the happiest
+circumstances, sheltered by the love of the tenderest parents, pain had
+first approached her when her mother died, and two years after her
+father followed his wife to the grave. In his will, Sandow, the friend
+and partner of many years, was named guardian of the orphan girl, and
+her pecuniary interests could have been placed in no better hands.
+
+But Jessie had never succeeded in forming a real attachment to her
+uncle, though she had known him from her childhood. He was a near
+relation of her mother's, and like her a native of Germany. More than
+twelve years before he had come almost destitute to America, and had
+sought and found a situation in her father's business. They said
+misfortunes and bitter experiences had driven him from Europe. What
+these really had been Jessie could never learn, for even her parents
+seemed only partially informed on the subject, and Sandow himself never
+alluded to it.
+
+In the beginning he had been placed in a subordinate position in the
+office merely out of consideration for him as a connection, but he soon
+developed such a restless activity, such prudence and energy, that he
+speedily won for himself a place second only to the chief himself, and
+when a threatened business crisis was turned aside only through his
+timely and energetic action, he was promoted to a share in the concern,
+which under his guidance soon made quite a new departure. A succession
+of bold and fortunate speculations raised the, till then, modest firm
+to the position of the first in the town, and the new chief managed to
+employ so successfully the weight which this good-fortune gave him that
+he became almost sole ruler, and at all events possessed the first and
+decisive voice in any question of importance.
+
+In this way Sandow had become in a comparatively short time a wealthy
+man. As he was alone, he resided as before in the house of his
+relations, but in spite of this domestic intercourse of many years'
+duration, and in spite also of the community of interests, he had never
+become really united with them. His cold, harsh manner closed the way
+to any nearer approach; he recognised nothing but business interests
+and incessant labour, and never sought rest or relaxation in the family
+circle; indeed, these were things which for him appeared to have no
+existence.
+
+Jessie's father made no opposition to his partner taking the greater
+portion of the work and anxiety off his own shoulders, being himself
+more inclined to social enjoyment, to an easy family life. Since he met
+Sandow's wishes on this point the relations between the two men had
+always been most harmonious, though they may have arisen in the first
+place more out of mutual necessity than real friendship.
+
+Now the management of the young heiress's possessions lay in Sandow's
+hands alone, and he soon extended his rights so far as to wish to
+control also her future. With the same inconsiderate selfishness which
+all his undertakings displayed, he wove the plan of a marriage between
+his ward and his brother, and was as much surprised as displeased when
+his scheme, which was unconditionally accepted on the one side, found
+decided opposition on the other. However, he paid little attention to
+this opposition, and was firmly convinced that the girl, who till now
+had shown neither strength nor inclination for independent action,
+would also, in this respect, follow his wishes.
+
+The hour destined for the journey to and from the station had nearly
+elapsed when the carriage again drew up at the door, and immediately
+after the two gentlemen appeared in the drawing-room where Jessie still
+sat.
+
+Sandow did not appear in the least agitated at again meeting his
+brother after a separation of so many years. His manner was as unmoved,
+his tone as cool as usual, as he presented Mr. Gustave Sandow to Miss
+Jessie Clifford. The new arrival approached the young lady with a
+polite bow.
+
+"May I also reckon on a friendly reception from you, Miss Clifford? I
+come as a stranger indeed, but I bring you a greeting from the land
+which was your mother's. Let this be my introduction to you."
+
+That sounded not only kindly, but friendly, almost warm. Jessie looked
+up with surprise, but the searching, piercing look which met hers
+chilled her again directly, for it recalled to her the cause of their
+acquaintance. She replied with cool civility--
+
+"I hope you had a pleasant voyage, Mr. Sandow."
+
+"Remarkably so. We had the calmest sea, the most agreeable passage, and
+also during my land journey the weather has been most delightful."
+
+"That is why you have protracted it so long, I suppose," said Sandow,
+joining in the conversation. "You have wandered about the country in
+every direction like a tourist. We expected you a fortnight ago."
+
+"Well, one ought to learn to know the country and the people," rejoined
+Gustave. "Did you wish me to come direct here?"
+
+"Not exactly. I quite understand your staying in the large towns. It is
+always an advantage to be personally acquainted with one's commercial
+correspondents. Unfortunately I have no time for it, but I certainly
+provided you with plenty of letters of introduction. What is it--a
+telegram?"
+
+The last words were addressed to a servant who had entered behind the
+two gentlemen, and who now offered him a telegram which had just
+arrived.
+
+While Gustave and Miss Clifford exchanged the first general remarks,
+the elder brother opened the telegram, glanced over it, and then,
+turning to the other two, said--
+
+"I must leave you for half an hour; a matter of business which demands
+immediate attention."
+
+"To-day! Sunday?" asked Gustave. "Do you, then, never allow yourself a
+moment's rest?"
+
+"Why should I? Something might then be neglected. On Sunday, when the
+offices are closed, I have the most pressing business sent out here.
+You looked up Jenkins and Co. in New York, Gustave? The telegram comes
+from them. I shall speak about it to you later. Meanwhile, I leave you
+in Jessie's company; so good-bye."
+
+He folded the telegram together and went.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+
+The younger brother looked after him with an air of the most profound
+astonishment.
+
+"Well! one does not seem in danger of being spoiled by excessive
+brotherly love," he remarked drily, turning towards Jessie.
+
+"You must know your brother to a certain extent," she answered simply,
+accustomed to see business take precedence of everything.
+
+"Certainly! but in Europe he was a little more considerate. I thought I
+had a claim on, at least, the first hour after my arrival."
+
+"You must be tired after your journey," said Jessie, seeking for some
+excuse for avoiding this equally unexpected and undesired
+_tete-a-tete_. "Your rooms are ready if you would, perhaps"--
+
+"Thanks, no!" interrupted Gustave; "I am not in the least tired, and
+have really every cause to be grateful to Jenkins and Co. for procuring
+me the pleasure of your company."
+
+With that he drew a chair towards him, and sat down opposite to her.
+But neither his serene and careless air, nor his prepossessing
+appearance, succeeded in thawing the cold reserve of the young lady.
+She was not surprised to find him considerably younger than her
+guardian, as she knew he was the child of a second marriage. The elder
+brother was, indeed, already past middle age, while the younger was
+scarcely over thirty. On the whole, his exterior was exactly that
+represented in the picture which hung in his brother's study. A
+powerful, manly figure, agreeable, intelligent features, dark hair and
+beard, and lively, sparkling dark eyes, which were distinctly fine and
+expressive. But it was just those eyes which displeased Jessie, for she
+felt instinctively that her whole character was being put to the proof
+by them. The same observant glance which had met hers in the first
+moment of their acquaintance rested steadily on her countenance. Mr.
+Sandow, junior, was openly examining her, as the first paragraph of the
+business contract clearly entitled him to do, and that was amply
+sufficient to awake the most decided opposition in the mind of the
+young lady. He began the conversation by remarking--
+
+"I am unfortunately quite unacquainted with your home. I come, an
+inexperienced European, as if fallen from the clouds into the new
+world, and count upon your friendly support."
+
+"I think you will find the help of your brother better, and more to be
+relied on, than any I might venture to give."
+
+"No doubt, as far as business affairs are concerned. Under all other
+circumstances, however, he seems to me rather unapproachable, and then
+there are some subjects with which I should like to make myself
+acquainted by the way."
+
+By the way! Yes, just so, by the way, so should a marriage be
+considered a life-long bond which others are accustomed to regard as
+the highest and holiest. The "inexperienced European" seemed to look on
+life quite from his brother's point of view, and to consider such
+relations as merely of secondary importance.
+
+"But no doubt they are entirely business affairs which bring you here,"
+said Jessie, not without irony. "As far as I know, you intend to enter
+our firm?"
+
+"Certainly! My brother has made that an indispensable condition."
+
+"Condition! Were you not, then, free to act as you chose, Mr. Sandow?
+But I forgot; no doubt it concerns the inheritance of your brother's
+fortune."
+
+The stab struck home; that was seen in the sudden flash of the dark
+eyes, but it produced no other effect, for Gustave replied with the
+most delightful candour--
+
+"Quite right; the inheritance. It really was in jeopardy had I
+declined. My brother was quite capable of leaving the whole of his
+means to a philanthropical institution had I not obeyed his wishes."
+
+Jessie hardly knew whether to be more surprised or annoyed at the
+openness with which this man acknowledged that he had come to America
+merely for the sake of the money. And this he declared before the woman
+whose hand and fortune were both destined for him, and in whom
+annoyance at last gained the upper hand as she replied--
+
+"Till now I did not know that calculation was so well understood in
+Germany."
+
+"Oh! thank God at last we are becoming a practical people," said
+Gustave, with unalterable composure. "We have been long about it, but
+now we are making undeniable progress. You seem to consider it a
+reproach, Miss Clifford!"
+
+"No; but I learnt to look on the land to which my mother belonged, and
+which she taught me to regard as a second home, from quite another
+side."
+
+"From the ideal side probably. Now I will not deny that this also
+exists; but, on the whole, people are now sweeping away the ideal from
+amongst us. There are only a few who still acknowledge it in word or
+deed."
+
+"Just on that account should the few gather round their threatened
+colours, and venture life and blood for their sake!"
+
+The phrase sounded rather peculiar in the mouth of a young girl, but
+she was plainly understood. Again the dark eyes flashed, but this time
+in unconcealed surprise.
+
+"Ah! how flattering! A quotation from one of my own articles! You know
+them then?"
+
+"The journal with which you are connected is one of the greatest
+political importance," said Jessie coolly. "It has always been read in
+our house. But just because I know your articles, does it surprise me
+that you were able to release yourself so easily and completely from
+all the bonds which held you to your native country."
+
+"You mean the duties to which I am bound by my connection with the
+journal!" remarked Gustave. "There were certainly difficulties, but
+they have been arranged according to my wishes. One journalist more or
+less in Germany makes no difference, and my pen has been long since
+replaced by another, and, no doubt, a better one."
+
+Jessie pressed her lips together. This wilful misunderstanding angered
+her inexpressibly, and she was still more annoyed at the persevering
+gaze, which yet had nothing obtrusive, but strove to conceal itself
+under the appearance of an animated conversation. In spite of this
+Jessie had the sensation that her whole character was being thoroughly
+studied, and this drove her by degrees from her reserve into a state of
+irritation entirely foreign to her disposition.
+
+"I did not know I had such an attentive reader on this side the ocean,"
+Gustave continued, in the most amiable manner. "Since I have learnt the
+fact, I should like to beg for your criticism. You have declared
+already that you love my home like a second fatherland. May I, then,
+reckon on your sympathy for all that my pen describes?"
+
+"You have given up your literary career," remarked Jessie, "for a more
+advantageous one."
+
+"Yes; I yielded to the force of circumstances. That does not seem to be
+judged favourably, but perhaps the author finds more grace in your eyes
+than the future partner in the firm of Clifford and Company."
+
+"At all events, I can admire the ease with which the one has been
+metamorphosed into the other."
+
+It was an annihilating look which accompanied the words, but Gustave
+Sandow was not to be so easily annihilated. He bore the look calmly,
+and his reply betrayed even a certain humour, which increased the
+growing irritation of the young lady.
+
+"The criticism is not a favourable one, I see. But that is just the
+reason why I must hear it. You must not withhold your bad opinion from
+me, Miss Clifford. I insist upon knowing my sentence."
+
+"Without reserve?"
+
+"Quite without reserve."
+
+"Well, then, Mr. Sandow, I declare openly to you that I have read with
+the fullest sympathy and admiration everything which came from your
+pen, till the moment when you accepted your brother's proposal. I
+should never have thought it possible. I thought that anyone who
+devoted himself so entirely to his country as you did, who fought so
+energetically for its rights, who summoned others so stirringly to
+their duties, must also abide by the colours to which he had sworn
+fealty, and dare not forsake them for mere fortune's sake. I could not
+believe that the pen from which flowed such glowing words should serve
+for the future to write figures, and only figures; that the undaunted
+champion should of his own free-will throw down his weapons, and quit
+the lists, to take a comfortable seat at the office desk. I doubted the
+possibility till the moment of your arrival, and that I must at last
+believe it--that is the bitterest disappointment of my life!"
+
+Jessie felt herself to be drawn on by her excitement to insult the man
+who sat before her, but she cared not for that. She saw in him only the
+adversary, only the importunate suitor, whom she would keep at a
+distance cost what it might. Let him feel in the first hour how deeply
+she despised his selfishness, then there would be no room to doubt how
+she felt about the marriage scheme, and she was safe from his wooing.
+But he did not appear very sensitive to insult, for he maintained the
+most perfect composure.
+
+"Miss Clifford, for a merchant's daughter, and the sleeping partner in
+a great mercantile house, you appear to nourish very disrespectful
+ideas of accounts and the office desk," said he, with revolting
+indifference. "My brother would be shocked. I feel myself extremely
+flattered that my modest pen has had the power of awakening so much
+interest, and as to the disappointment, I do not give up the hope of at
+last succeeding in bringing you to a better opinion of my performances
+at the office desk."
+
+Jessie made no reply. She completely lost her self-control at this way
+of turning affront into compliment, and at the smiling calm with which
+the man[oe]uvre was carried out.
+
+Fortunately at this moment the door opened, and Sandow entered.
+
+"The telegrams are sent off," said he. "Now I am again at your
+disposal. I suppose dinner will soon be ready, Jessie?"
+
+"I have still some necessary orders to give, which I will do at once."
+
+And hastily, as if taking to flight before the new arrival, but not
+without casting on him another glance of contempt, she left the room.
+
+"Well, what do you think of Jessie?" said Sandow, as soon as the
+brothers were alone; "and what progress have you made with her?"
+
+"Progress! Surely, Frank, you did not quite expect me to make her a
+proposal of marriage at the first interview!"
+
+"But at least you might lead the way to it."
+
+"The way has opened most successfully," Gustave assured him. "We have
+already had a most lively dispute."
+
+"Dispute! What do you mean?" and Sandow, who had seated himself near
+his brother, looked up as if he could hardly believe his ears. "Is that
+the way you begin your courtship?"
+
+"Why not? At least it prevents indifference. That I certainly need not
+fear from Miss Clifford. She is prejudiced against me to the highest
+degree, and looks upon my leaving my country at your call as a kind of
+treachery against it."
+
+"Yes, the girl has her head full of romantic ideas," said Sandow
+angrily. "That is owing to the sentimental, high-flown education she
+received from her mother. Clifford could not be induced to oppose it,
+although otherwise his understanding was healthy enough. He idolized
+his only daughter, and thought her everything that is good and
+beautiful. You will have to contend with these exaggerated ideas when
+Jessie is your wife."
+
+Around Gustave Sandow's lips played a half ironical smile as he
+replied--
+
+"Do you, then, think it is a settled thing that she will become my
+wife? At present I seem to have the most brilliant prospects of
+refusal."
+
+"Stupid girlish whims! nothing more. She has taken it into her head
+that marriage must be preceded by a love romance. But you"--and here
+Sandow's eyes rested on his brother's handsome person--"it need not be
+difficult for you to gain ground with her, and my authority will do the
+rest. Jessie is far too dependent a character not to be led at last."
+
+"Well, I have not seen any symptoms of this dependence myself,"
+remarked Gustave drily. "Miss Clifford was tolerably energetic when she
+gave me the flattering information that my acquaintance was one of the
+bitterest disappointments of her life."
+
+Sandow wrinkled his forehead.
+
+"She told you that!"
+
+"Literally, and accompanied the speech with the necessary air of
+dislike and contempt. She is a quite peculiar mixture of maidenly
+reserve and genuine American self-consciousness. In our country a young
+girl would hardly have read a total stranger such a lecture."
+
+"Oh! no; Jessie is thoroughly German," said Sandow. "She is the living
+image of her mother, and has not a single trait of her American father.
+But never mind that now. Let us come to the point. I never felt any
+doubt as to your acceptance of my proposal; that it has taken place so
+quickly and unreservedly is very agreeable to me, since it proves that,
+in spite of all your idealistic scribbling, you have managed to
+preserve a clear, cool head capable of making a calculation, which is
+just what is wanted here. Jessie is in every respect a brilliant match,
+such as you would scarcely have found under other circumstances. For
+me, the first recommendation of the plan is that it will keep
+Clifford's money in the firm. Our interests are therefore identical,
+and I hope we shall be satisfied with each other."
+
+"I hope so too," said Gustave laconically.
+
+The purely business view taken by his brother of the projected marriage
+seemed to surprise him as little as the judgment on his scribbling hurt
+him.
+
+"The arrangement, then, remains as settled in our letters," continued
+Sandow. "For the present you enter the office as a volunteer in order
+to learn your new calling. That is not difficult for anyone gifted with
+the necessary education and intelligence. All beyond requires merely
+habit and practice. As soon as your engagement with Jessie is openly
+announced, you will have a share in the business. So don't delay your
+explanation too long. As an heiress, Jessie is naturally much run
+after, and in little more than a year she will be of age. Besides, at
+the present moment I have some large undertakings in view, and must be
+certain of complete control over the whole capital."
+
+"And therefore Miss Clifford and I must marry," added Gustave. "One
+sees that you are accustomed to make the most of a fortunate
+conjuncture, whether of men or dollars."
+
+There was a touch of mockery in these words, but Sandow did not appear
+to notice it. In his reply lay the same icy indifference which he had
+displayed in his conversation with Jessie.
+
+"One must reckon with men as with figures; in that lies the whole
+secret of success. At all events, you have every reason to thank the
+present conjuncture. Besides all the other advantages, it secures my
+money to you. You know I have no other relative or heir."
+
+"No other! Really?" asked Gustave in a peculiar tone, while he gazed
+fixedly at his brother.
+
+"No!"
+
+In that one short word what unbounded severity and determination!
+
+"Then you have not altered your views. I thought that now years have
+rolled by you might have learnt to look differently on the past."
+
+"Silence!" interrupted Sandow. "Name it not! The past has no existence,
+shall have no existence for me. I buried it when I left Europe for
+ever."
+
+"And the recollection of it too!"
+
+"Certainly! and I will not have it recalled by others. You have already
+attempted it several times in your letters, and I imagined my dislike
+to the subject had been shown plainly enough. Why do you always return
+to it? Is it to distress me, or"--here he fixed a threatening,
+penetrating look on his brother--"does some scheme lie at the bottom of
+this persistency?"
+
+Gustave shrugged his shoulders slightly.
+
+"Why should you think that? I asked in my own interests. Since the
+question of inheritance is now before us, you can easily understand the
+motive."
+
+"Decidedly. You have become uncommonly practical I see, and it is much
+better for you to have become so without paying the heavy price for
+your experience which mine has cost me."
+
+Gustave became suddenly serious, and laid his hand on his brother's
+arm.
+
+"Yes, Frank, a heavy price it must indeed have been, since it has made
+you another man. I do not find a single trace of what you were at
+home."
+
+Sandow laughed bitterly.
+
+"No, thank God! there is not much left of the soft-hearted fool who
+lived for every one, who trusted every one, and in the end must pay the
+price of his blind faith like a criminal. Whenever that blind
+confidence has cost a man, as it has me, honour, happiness, nay,
+existence itself, he will for the future manage his affairs after a
+different fashion. But now, not another word of the past. I have cast
+it from me; let it rest."
+
+"Dinner is ready," announced a servant, throwing open the door.
+
+The brothers rose; the turn the conversation had taken made any
+interruption welcome to both. They entered the adjoining dining-room,
+where Jessie already awaited them. Gustave had in a moment regained his
+usual manner. He approached the young lady and offered her his arm as
+if nothing in the world had come between them.
+
+"Miss Clifford, I have the honour to introduce myself as a volunteer in
+the house of Clifford and Company. I may, therefore, now regard you as
+my second chief, and respectfully offer you my humble services."
+
+And without paying any attention to the frigid manner of his second
+chief, he took the arm which Jessie did not dare to refuse, and led her
+to the table.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+
+The house of Clifford, as already hinted, was one of the most important
+in the town. The numerous staff of clerks and attendants, and the
+constant activity which reigned there, betrayed even to a stranger the
+importance of the great mercantile house, whose head, indeed, held a
+most conspicuous place in the commercial world. Gustave Sandow, who,
+though now holding the modest post of a volunteer, was destined later
+to share that dignity, had now entered on his new calling, but showed
+so far very little enthusiasm for it. His brother noticed with great
+displeasure that he looked on the whole thing as a kind of
+entertainment with which he amused himself, and of which the chief
+attraction was its novelty. He allowed little indeed to be seen of the
+austere dignity of the future partner, while he made extensive use of
+his freedom as a volunteer. The various objects of interest in the
+town, its environs, its society, seemed far more attractive to him than
+his brother's office. The latter remarked on it in his usual sharp
+manner, and requested that more interest might be shown in business
+matters.
+
+Gustave acknowledged in every respect the justice of his brother's
+observations, but continued as regularly to do what pleased him best,
+and offered to all reproaches the declaration that at present he was
+only a guest, and must be allowed to make himself at home in his new
+surroundings.
+
+Between himself and Miss Clifford had arisen a curious, half
+antagonistic, half confidential relation. On the whole they were always
+prepared for war, and Jessie did her best to maintain that state of
+affairs. But it was difficult enough, for her adversary displayed such
+unwearying politeness and amiability as left her few occasions for the
+contrary. The certainly not very flattering estimate of his character
+which had been forced upon him in the very first hour of their
+acquaintanceship had obviously affected him very little. On his side he
+was full of attentions, with which he managed to mingle very adroitly
+the friendly confidence of a household companion, and Jessie saw with
+horror the courtship from which she had considered herself entirely
+free deliberately unfolded before her.
+
+It was morning, about a week after the arrival of the new acquaintance.
+Breakfast was just over. Gustave was giving Miss Clifford a sketch of
+some of his travelling experiences, which he did with such sparkling
+animation and such vivid colouring as enchained Jessie's attention
+against her will.
+
+Sandow, on the other hand, was occupied in looking for some business
+papers in his pocket-book, and listened only with half an ear.
+
+When his brother had finished, he said satirically--
+
+"One would really believe that you had undertaken the journey merely to
+find materials for some future article on the political or artistic
+views entertained here. Landscape, architecture, national life, you
+have lost no opportunities of studying, but the business you should
+have made the main interest is scarcely alluded to. You certainly went
+everywhere that my introductions would take you, but seem only to have
+dined with the firms and talked about politics afterwards."
+
+"You surely did not expect us to take our business to table with us!"
+cried Gustave. "That is a pleasure which only you provide for your
+guests. I believe you would hail it as a most blessed discovery if
+eating and sleeping could be dispensed with altogether. What an
+incalculable gain in hours of business for much-tormented mankind!"
+
+Jessie cast a half terrified glance at her guardian. She knew that this
+was a very tender point with him. Gustave knew it too, yet every day he
+ventured on such remarks to his face. He understood most perfectly how
+to parry the masterful and sometimes offensive manner of his brother,
+so that he never allowed himself to appear corrected or in any way
+subordinate.
+
+Sandow, whose strength did not lie in repartee, generally quitted the
+field when he began in that tone of mockery. So he now rose, and,
+closing his pocket-book, sarcastically replied--
+
+"Well, you certainly do not belong to the much-tormented class; you
+take your life easily enough. But I want to speak to you for a few
+minutes in my room before we go to the office. It concerns the New York
+affair."
+
+"I will come immediately," returned his brother, who, however, remained
+calmly seated while the other left the room, and then, turning to
+Jessie, asked--
+
+"Have you ever seen such a business maniac as my brother, Miss
+Clifford? At breakfast he makes business notes, at dinner he reads the
+money article, and I am convinced that he speculates in his dreams."
+
+"Yes, he possesses a most untiring activity," replied Jessie, "and he
+looks for the same thing in other people. You should not keep him
+waiting, for I am sure he wants to speak to you particularly."
+
+Gustave paid not the least attention to this broad hint to depart.
+
+"It concerns Jenkins and Co. That agreeable firm actually besieges us
+with letters and telegrams respecting a common speculation. I am not at
+all in a hurry to talk about it, and my brother is very considerate
+when he knows I am with you."
+
+That was unquestionably the case. For various reasons Sandow favoured
+in every way the growing intimacy between his brother and his ward, and
+even would go so far as to forgive a want of punctuality occasionally.
+
+The hint to this effect was, however, very ungraciously received by the
+young lady. She thought best to maintain perfect silence.
+
+"Besides that, I have a great desire to speak to you alone," continued
+Gustave. "For several days I have sought an opportunity in vain."
+
+An icy, long-drawn "Indeed!" was the only reply.
+
+So really after an acquaintanceship of scarcely a week, this man dared
+to approach her with his proposals, in spite of her distant demeanour,
+her plainly shown aversion. In spite of all he would try to complete
+the business contract which gave him the hand of the rich heiress, and
+still worse, with an easy assurance as if undeniably in the right.
+
+"I have a petition to offer," he began afresh, "a petition which, by
+granting you will make me for ever your debtor."
+
+Miss Clifford looked as if carved out of stone, and her manner left no
+doubt that she had not the slightest intention of placing him "for ever
+in her debt." She summoned all her energies together to meet the
+approaching emergency with the necessary decision.
+
+Gustave paid not the least attention to her, and continued with his
+usual genial smile--
+
+"It concerns a young countrywoman of mine!"
+
+"A--young countrywoman?" repeated Jessie, astonished to the last degree
+at the unexpected turn which the conversation had taken.
+
+"Yes, a young German who came over in the same ship with me. She was
+going quite alone to a relative in New York, who had offered the orphan
+a home with him. On landing, however, she learnt that he had died a few
+days before, and the poor child found herself quite unprotected and
+forsaken in the New World."
+
+"You took charge of her," remarked Jessie, with a certain sharpness.
+
+"Certainly; I took her to a German family, where she could be received
+for a few days. But she cannot stay there long, and it must be a very
+difficult thing for a girl of scarcely sixteen, and without an
+introduction, to find a situation as governess or companion. Here in
+this town it might be more feasible, especially if a well-known house
+such as yours undertook to introduce her. My petition is this, will you
+receive this young girl for a few weeks as a guest till something may
+be found for her?"
+
+Generally Jessie was only too ready to help whenever it lay in her
+power, and a countrywoman of her mother's had naturally every claim
+upon her sympathy, but the side from which the demand came caused it to
+fill her with the darkest suspicions. In her eyes Gustave Sandow was
+not the man to help any fellow-creature from pure philanthropy. Such an
+egoist must certainly have other motives for his actions, and she
+returned a very cautious answer.
+
+"This takes me quite by surprise. I am to receive a total stranger,
+who, as you acknowledge, is entirely destitute of introductions?"
+
+"I undertake the responsibility," cried Gustave eagerly. "Any security
+you can desire I will give."
+
+"Oh, indeed!"
+
+A light began to dawn upon her. She saw the dreaded offer vanish into
+the distance. A way of escape which she had never thought of suddenly
+opened before her.
+
+"You seem to know your protegee very thoroughly, Mr. Sandow, and to
+take an extraordinary interest in her."
+
+"Certainly I do. Towards an orphan that is the duty of every
+Christian."
+
+"I was not aware that you were such a good Christian," said Jessie,
+with unconcealed irony.
+
+"Then, Miss Clifford, you have misunderstood me in that as in so many
+other respects. Where humanity is concerned my opinions are in the
+highest degree Christian," declared Sandow solemnly.
+
+Jessie's lips curled scornfully at the word "humanity," but the thing
+began to interest her, so she asked--
+
+"Then you wish for an invitation to our house for"--
+
+"Miss Frida Palm, that is her name."
+
+"I will speak to my guardian about it, and if he is willing"--
+
+"Oh! pray do not; that is just what I am most anxious to avoid,"
+interrupted Gustave. "I do not wish my brother to know anything of my
+appeal to you. Would it not be possible to give out that Miss Palm is a
+protegee of your own, recommended by some New York acquaintance, and
+whom you have agreed to receive? The suggestion is rather singular, I
+see that in your manner, so I place myself and my petition entirely in
+your hands."
+
+Jessie's manner certainly showed how surprised she was. She bent on the
+speaker a long, searching look.
+
+"Indeed, a very extraordinary demand. You really ask that we should
+literally perform a comedy, in order that you may gain a point with my
+guardian! With what object?"
+
+"Certainly with no bad object, even if for the present that must remain
+my secret."
+
+"Your secret is not hard to guess, at least for me," said Jessie
+sarcastically, but still with a feeling of intense relief at the turn
+things had taken. "Only acknowledge openly that your interest in this
+young lady is a much deeper and more serious one than appears, and that
+you have a decided object to gain in bringing her here."
+
+Apparently overwhelmed, Gustave drooped his head.
+
+"I acknowledge it."
+
+"And for more than one reason you fear that your brother will be
+opposed to this interest."
+
+"I allow that too."
+
+"Therefore Miss Palm is to appear unacknowledged in our house, that,
+through her personal qualities she may gain sympathy and consideration,
+until you may venture to declare the truth."
+
+"Miss Clifford, you have incredible penetration," said Gustave, in the
+tone of deepest admiration. "It is quite impossible to hide anything
+from you. Now that you have so completely seen through me, may I reckon
+on your support?"
+
+The young lady assumed a very dignified manner.
+
+"I have never yet condescended to an untruth, and would never do it
+if"--
+
+She stopped, and a passing blush tinged her cheek.
+
+"If it were not for certain plans of my brother's," added Gustave. "You
+do not agree with them; that I saw on the day of my arrival. But just
+on that account you need not fear that I have any doubt as to the
+reasons of your confederacy. They are certainly not flattering to me,
+but in this instance decidedly advantageous."
+
+"Advantageous!" echoed Jessie, in a contemptuous tone. "Quite right;
+that is sufficient for you. You fear a breach with your brother if you
+make a choice without his consent, and, as far as I know him, this
+would be the case since your choice has fallen on a poor and friendless
+orphan. It is certainly advantageous if you try to gain your end by
+circuitous means. But how much more manly it would be to go to your
+brother and openly declare your love, bidding defiance to his anger.
+But on such points our ideas are quite opposed. Let Miss Palm know that
+I shall expect her. She can start immediately on receiving your
+letter."
+
+"That is not at all necessary," replied Gustave calmly. "I have already
+written to her; she is on her way, and this afternoon will arrive
+here."
+
+This was rather too strong for Jessie. She looked at the daring visitor
+with disdain.
+
+"So that was already decided. You are very considerate, Mr. Sandow."
+
+"I reckoned on your good heart," he assured her, with a deep bow.
+
+"You reckoned far more on your brother's plans, which have, half
+against my will, made me your confederate. So be it then. I will do my
+best to afford you the advantage of maintaining a good understanding
+with your brother. As soon as your fiancee arrives, bring her to me,
+and for the present she shall pass as my protegee."
+
+And, with a very cold and distant bow, Jessie swept from the room.
+
+Gustave looked after her with a very peculiar smile on his lips.
+
+"Every inch contempt! But it suits her splendidly. Certainly I play a
+very pitiful part in the story; that, however, is nothing; if Frida can
+only make good her footing in the house, that is the point."
+
+In her room Jessie walked about in violent excitement. She was really
+rejoiced that the dreaded suitor should in this way prove himself
+perfectly harmless, and that he himself lent a hand to the destruction
+of the hated marriage scheme; but that did not in the least diminish
+her indignation at the selfishness and avarice of the man who had
+displayed anew all the meanness of his character. Yet he loved, this
+man, and apparently truly and disinterestedly. Just on the way to the
+wealthy, unloved bride, whom his brother had so carefully selected for
+him, a young, forsaken, unprotected orphan had succeeded in awakening a
+real affection in his heart. What hindered him, then, from introducing
+his chosen bride to his brother? And if Sandow really showed himself
+obstinate and unreasonable, he might then return with her to Germany.
+He had occupied an independent position there, which would be
+immediately open to him again, and which would permit him to marry
+without the consent of his brother. But then his chance of that
+brother's wealth would be in jeopardy, and at any price that rich
+inheritance must be secured. Therefore the affianced bride must be
+content to play the part of a stranger, all kinds of underhand modes of
+gaining his end would be attempted, and a regular intrigue set on foot
+in order to wheedle the rich brother to consent, and if, in spite of
+all, he persisted in a decided refusal--and Jessie knew that her
+guardian, who always measured men by the length of their purses, would
+never welcome a poor sister-in-law--then, no doubt, the daring champion
+of the Ideal would choose the money, and leave the bride in the lurch,
+as he had already deserted his profession.
+
+Jessie's frank and open disposition rose in rebellion against the part
+forced on her; yet she felt it necessary to forward this union by every
+means in her power. She would at any cost avoid a serious struggle with
+her guardian. It was to a certain extent an act of necessity if she
+agreed to the proposal. Should they really succeed in gaining Sandow's
+consent then the threatening storm would pass completely away.
+
+It was remarkable that the one thing in Gustave's favour--his evident
+capacity for true love--was also the one thing most obnoxious to
+Jessie. She had so bitterly reproached him for yielding so
+unresistingly to the business calculations of his brother, and now,
+when she learnt that in his heart he had thwarted, and wished entirely
+to defeat those plans, she was more prejudiced against him than ever.
+She was thoroughly convinced that this man was only worthy of contempt,
+and that she felt sure of always, and under all circumstances,
+bestowing upon him.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+Meanwhile Gustave Sandow had mounted to the higher story, where were
+situated his brother's private apartments.
+
+"I began to think you would not condescend to come at all," was the
+remark, delivered in his sharpest and most unpleasant tone, with which
+he greeted the dilatory Gustave.
+
+"I was talking to Miss Clifford," replied Gustave, as if fully aware
+that that fact would completely justify him. "It was impossible to
+break off our interesting conversation sooner."
+
+The allusion did not fail of its effect. The projected marriage was too
+important to Sandow, and his ward's disinclination to it, too well
+known to him, to allow him to throw the slightest hindrance in the way
+of his brother's courtship. He therefore replied more graciously--
+
+"I suppose it was one of your usual altercations; you amuse yourselves
+with this continual wrangling; but I do not find that you make much
+progress with Jessie. She is more reserved than ever towards you."
+
+"Frank, you cannot judge of my progress,", said Gustave, with an
+injured air. "It is considerable I assure you."
+
+"We will hope so," replied Sandow, significantly, "and now to business.
+I want to talk to you of the affair, which I, and some business friends
+in New York contemplate taking in hand together. Jenkins tells me he
+has already spoken of it to you, and yesterday I gave you the
+correspondence to look over, so you must now be pretty well up in the
+subject."
+
+"Decidedly I am."
+
+Gustave had all at once become serious, and the answer rang quite
+differently from his usual cheerful, careless tone. Sandow took no
+notice of the change, but continued--
+
+"You know we possess in the West large districts which are not yet
+settled. The purchase was to be made under extremely advantageous
+circumstances; but the extent of territory was so enormous that Jenkins
+was not able to complete it with his own means alone. He therefore
+applied to me and won me over to his views. We were fortunate in
+obtaining the land for a very moderate sum, and what now concerns us is
+to have it occupied advantageously. This can only be done by
+colonisation, and German colonisation in particular seems most
+suitable. We have prepared all the necessary notices, and intend now to
+begin seriously."
+
+"Only one question," said Gustave, interrupting the dry business-like
+narration. "Have you any personal knowledge of your possessions?"
+
+"Why, I should not undertake such an extensive business without full
+information. Naturally I know all about it."
+
+"So do I," said Gustave laconically.
+
+Sandow started and drew back a step.
+
+"You! How? When? Is it possible?"
+
+"Certainly, and in the most simple manner. Mr. Jenkins, whom I looked
+up in New York at your express wish, explained to me when the
+conversation fell on this subject, that you reckoned greatly on me, or
+rather on my pen. I therefore held it necessary to make myself
+thoroughly acquainted with the whole affair. That was really the cause
+of my late arrival, and of my 'pleasure tour,' as you called it. Before
+all, I wished to know where my country people were to be sent."
+
+Sandow knitted his brows gloomily.
+
+"All this trouble was quite superfluous. We are not in the habit of
+going to work in such a circumstantial manner. But what seems to me
+very remarkable is, that you should have been here a whole week without
+giving me the slightest hint of your journey. But never mind. We
+certainly reckon much on you and your literary connections. Our agents
+will do their best, but that is not enough. People have become very
+suspicious about agents, and the outlay has been too great to let us
+run any risks. Our great wish is that one of the great influential
+German papers which stands above all suspicion of a puff, should open
+the subject in our interest. It is true that you are no longer on the
+staff of the _K--sche Zeitung_; but they regret having lost you, and
+would gladly receive your contributions from America. A series of
+articles written in your eloquent and brilliant style would secure our
+success, and if you use your other literary connections skilfully so as
+to make the thing widely known, there is no doubt that in a few years a
+great German emigration will take place."
+
+Gustave had listened in silence without offering the least
+interruption; but now he raised his eyes and fixed them earnestly on
+his brother's face.
+
+"You forget one trifle, which is that your territory is totally unfit
+for colonisation. The land lies as unfavourably as possible, the
+climate is in the highest degree unhealthy, indeed, in some seasons
+deadly. The soil is unproductive, and to the most gigantic efforts
+returns only the smallest results. All the aids of skilful cultivation
+are utterly wasted, and the few settlers who are scattered here and
+there are sunk in sickness and misery. They are exposed, utterly
+defenceless, to the rigour of the most cruel elements, and those who
+might follow them from Europe would share the same fate."
+
+Sandow listened with ever-growing surprise, and at first words failed
+him, at last he exclaimed angrily--
+
+"What absurd exaggerations! Who has put such ideas into your head, and
+how can an utter stranger judge of such circumstances? What can you
+know of it?"
+
+"I have made the strictest inquiries on the spot. My information is
+authentic."
+
+"Nonsense! And if it were what have I to do with it? Do you think that
+you, who have scarcely been a week in the counting-house, can give me
+instructions in the management of my speculations?"
+
+"Certainly not! But when such a speculation costs the life and health
+of thousands we are accustomed to call it by a different name."
+
+"By what name?" asked Sandow, threateningly, advancing close to his
+brother.
+
+Gustave would not be intimidated, but replied firmly--
+
+"Knavery!"
+
+"Gustave!" cried Sandow furiously, "you dare"--
+
+"Naturally that word applies only to Mr. Jenkins. The remarkable
+attention with which that honourable personage received me, the
+constant sounding of my praises, the popularity of my name, and the
+brilliant success of my pen, which were to work wonders here as they
+had done at home--all this roused my suspicions and induced me to
+undertake the journey. You don't know the place, Frank, or at all
+events have only glanced superficially at it. But now that I have
+opened your eyes you will seek for the proof of my assertions, and let
+the whole thing drop."
+
+Sandow did not seem much disposed to profit by the means of escape
+which his brother offered to him.
+
+"Who says I shall?" asked he harshly. "Do you think I can give up
+without an effort the hundreds of thousands already invested there,
+merely because you have some sentimental objections to urge. The land
+is as good or as bad as in many other districts, and the immigrants
+have to struggle with climate and soil everywhere. These difficulties
+will be easily overcome by perseverance. It would not be the first
+German colony which had flourished under most unfavourable
+circumstances."
+
+"After hundreds and thousands had been ruined! That is enriching
+foreign soil with German blood at too great a cost."
+
+Sandow bit his lips; he evidently controlled himself with difficulty,
+and his voice was hoarse and stifled as he replied.
+
+"What business had you to go there on your own account? Such
+exaggerated conscientiousness is here quite misplaced, and also quite
+useless. And if I did not accept Jenkins' offer there are plenty of
+others who would; and I must acknowledge that he applied to me first."
+
+"First to you--a German--that was certainly a sign of remarkable
+respect from an American."
+
+It was singular that the same man who a quarter of an hour before, had
+shown himself so anxious to conceal the choice of his heart from his
+austere brother, since it might displease him, now boldly defied him,
+under circumstances in which he could not be so profoundly interested.
+Sandow, though ignorant of his conversation with Jessie, was astonished
+to the highest degree at this conduct.
+
+"You seem to be now playing the part of moral hero," said he with
+bitter sarcasm; "that does not suit very well with the extremely
+material motives which brought you here. You should have first made
+things clear to yourself. If you want a share in my house you must set
+its interest before everything, and in that interest I require you to
+write this article, and take care that it appears in a suitable place.
+Do you hear, Gustave? Under any circumstances you will do that!"
+
+"To bring my countrymen here to rot in that swamp of fever and misery!
+No."
+
+"Consider the subject well before you give such a decided refusal,"
+warned Sandow with an icy calm, under which lay a half-concealed
+threat. "It is the first demand I make on you; if you fail me now, any
+future accommodation is impossible. It is quite in my power to draw
+back from the proposed arrangement; think of that!"
+
+"Frank, you would not force me"--
+
+"I force you to nothing; I only explain to you that we part if you
+persist in your refusal. If you are prepared for the consequences, well
+and good. I hold to my conditions."
+
+He bent over his writing table, and took from it some papers which he
+placed in his pocket-book. Gustave stood silently by, his eyes fixed on
+the floor, a dark cloud on his brow.
+
+"Just at the moment when Frida is on her way here," murmured he.
+"Impossible. I cannot sacrifice that."
+
+"Well?" asked Sandow, turning to him.
+
+"Give me time for consideration. The thing has come so suddenly, so
+unexpectedly. I will think it over."
+
+The elder brother was quite contented with this partial submission; he
+had certainly not doubted that his threat would produce its effect.
+
+"Good! a week sooner or later does not matter. I hope you will have
+sense to see that one must act according to circumstances. But come
+now, it is high time that we were at the office. And once more,
+Gustave, give yourself up to my guidance for the future, and undertake
+no more extravagances like this journey. You see, it only gives rise to
+differences between us, and increases the difficulties of your
+position."
+
+"Decidedly," said Gustave, half aloud, while he prepared to follow his
+brother. "My position is tolerably difficult, worse than I had
+anticipated."
+
+It was afternoon of the same day, and Jessie awaited with some anxiety
+and a great deal of curiosity the arrival of the young visitor. Gustave
+had told her in the morning that he should try to leave business
+earlier than usual, in order to meet Miss Palm at the station, and
+bring her to the house before his brother came home. At the appointed
+hour, then, he entered the drawing-room, leading a young girl.
+
+"Miss Frida Palm," said he, introducing her. "My protegee, from this
+moment _our_ protegee, since you are so good as to afford her an asylum
+in your house."
+
+Jessie felt painfully impressed by this mode of introduction. So he did
+not even venture to introduce the girl to her as his betrothed.
+"Protegee," that was a word open to so many interpretations. He
+intended evidently to leave himself a means of retreat, should his
+brother show himself unyielding. Miss Clifford pitied with her whole
+heart the young creature who had given herself to such an egoist, and
+consequently her reception was warmer than she had at first intended.
+
+"You are very welcome, Miss Palm," said she kindly; "I have heard all
+about you, and you may confide yourself to me without fear. I am not
+accustomed to neglect my protegees."
+
+The "I" was slightly but distinctly accented, but he, at whom the
+remark was directed, remained, alas, totally unmoved. He seemed
+extremely pleased that his plan had succeeded, and the young stranger
+replied in a low, rather trembling voice--
+
+"You are very kind, Miss Clifford, and I only hope that I may deserve
+your goodness."
+
+Jessie placed her visitor beside her, and while the usual remarks on
+the weather, her journey, and arrival were made, she took the
+opportunity of examining her more closely. She was certainly a very
+young girl, almost a child, who had evidently scarcely reached her
+sixteenth year, but the delicate childish features bore an expression
+of seriousness and decision, astonishing at such an age. The large,
+dark eyes generally rested on the ground, but when they were raised for
+a moment, they gave a glance full of shyness and restraint which suited
+ill with the energetic features. The dark hair was simply drawn back
+from her face, and the deep mourning dress made the young stranger
+appear even paler than she naturally was.
+
+"You are an orphan?" asked Jessie, with a glance at the dress.
+
+"I lost my mother six months ago," was the short, touching answer.
+
+That touched a kindred string in Jessie's bosom. She still mourned too
+for her beloved parents, and by the recollection came an expression of
+pain in her face.
+
+"In that our fates are alike. I am an orphan too, and it is only a year
+since my father was torn from me. Yours is, no doubt, much longer
+dead."
+
+The girl's lips trembled, and she replied almost inaudibly--
+
+"In my childhood. I scarcely knew him."
+
+"Poor child," said Jessie, with overflowing sympathy. "It must indeed
+be sad to stand so alone and desolate in the world."
+
+"Oh! I am not desolate. I have found a protector, the noblest and best
+of men!"
+
+In these words lay a truly affecting devotion, and the look which at
+the same moment was cast upon Gustave, betrayed an almost enthusiastic
+gratitude; the latter, however, received it all with enraging
+indifference, with the air of a sultan, as Jessie angrily considered.
+He appeared to look upon it as a richly deserved compliment, and
+replied in his usual jesting manner--
+
+"You see, Miss Clifford, what my reputation with Frida is. I should be
+happy if you would come round to this opinion too, which, alas, I dare
+not hope."
+
+Jessie ignored this remark. To her the manner in which he received the
+devotion of his future wife, and treated it as a subject for jesting
+was quite revolting, and she returned to Miss Palm.
+
+"At present I must welcome you alone. You do not yet know my guardian,
+but in a short time you will meet him, and I hope with all my heart
+that you will succeed in gaining his sympathy."
+
+Frida made no reply; she looked in the same timid manner at the
+speaker, and then dumbly at the ground. Jessie was rather surprised at
+this strange reception of her kindly meant words, but Gustave joined in
+the conversation, with the remark--
+
+"At first you must have great consideration for Frida. It will be
+difficult for her to accustom herself to her new surroundings, and the
+part which she is forced to play in the house oppresses and terrifies
+her."
+
+"Forced at your desire!" Jessie could not refrain from adding.
+
+"Yes, that cannot now be altered. At all events she knows the
+conditions, and also that there is no other way of reaching our end.
+Frida, you confide entirely in me, don't you?"
+
+Instead of answering, Frida stretched her hand towards him, with an
+expression which would have excused any lover for pressing the little
+hand to his lips. But this one calmly held it in his own, nodded
+protectingly, and said--
+
+"I was sure of it."
+
+"I will do all in my power to relieve what is painful in your
+position," said Jessie, reassuringly. "And now may I keep you with me?"
+
+"We had better wait till to-morrow," said Gustave. "It would very much
+surprise my brother to find a complete stranger, of whose arrival he
+had not even been warned, established as a member of his household.
+That might at once arouse his suspicions. It would be better for Frida
+to return to the hotel where I stopped with her and left her things. In
+the course of the evening some opportunity of speaking of her is sure
+to arise, and then the removal can be effected without any trouble."
+
+Jessie was annoyed at the suggestion, in proportion as she recognized
+its justice.
+
+"You are incredibly prudent, Mr. Sandow! I really admire all these
+precautions, and this clever calculation of all possible emergencies."
+
+Gustave bowed as if he had really received a compliment.
+
+"Yes, yes, Frida," said he, in reply to the look of surprise with which
+the girl listened to this perpetual bickering. "Miss Clifford and I
+have an excessive mutual admiration. You see already, what great
+respect we show each other. But now it is time to start, or my brother
+will surprise us here."
+
+Frida rose obediently. Jessie felt a deep sympathy with the poor girl
+who resigned herself so completely to the selfish plans of her lover,
+and bade her a hearty farewell.
+
+Gustave accompanied Miss Palm to the carriage, which waited to take her
+back to the hotel; but just as they were descending the steps a second
+carriage drove up, and Sandow, whose office hours were now over,
+stepped out.
+
+"My brother," said Gustave in a low voice.
+
+Miss Palm must have stood greatly in awe of this terrible brother, for
+she suddenly turned deadly pale, and made an involuntary movement as if
+to fly, while the arm which rested in her companion's trembled
+violently.
+
+"Frida!" said the latter, in an earnest, reproachful tone.
+
+Frida struggled for composure, but her timidity this time was not the
+cause of her agitation. It was not the look of a startled dove which
+met the new arrival, but one in which lay gloomy, almost wild
+resistance, and the energetic side of her nature was shown so
+distinctly in her features that it seemed as if she were rather
+beginning a struggle with a dreaded enemy than trying to conciliate
+him.
+
+Sandow had meanwhile entered, and met the pair face to face in the
+vestibule. He bowed slightly, but seemed surprised to see his brother
+accompanied by a perfect stranger.
+
+Frida returned the greeting, but instead of stopping hastened anxiously
+forwards, and thus prevented the possibility of an introduction.
+
+Gustave saw that it would be useless to try to effect it, so placed her
+in the carriage, closed the door, and directed the coachman to the
+hotel.
+
+"Who is that girl?" asked Sandow, who had waited for his brother.
+
+"A certain Miss Palm," said he lightly, "an acquaintance of Miss
+Clifford's."
+
+"And to whom you act as cavalier."
+
+"Not at all; my service is paid to Miss Clifford. At her wish, I
+fetched the young lady, in whom she is much interested, from the
+station, and brought her here. You know I left the office earlier than
+usual."
+
+"Ah, indeed! Are you already on such good terms with Jessie that she
+entrusts you with such commissions?" said Sandow, much gratified to
+find his brother had made such decided progress, while they re-ascended
+the stairs and walked along the corridor together.
+
+As they entered the drawing-room, Gustave took the thing promptly in
+hand.
+
+"My brother has already seen your protegee, Miss Clifford," he began.
+"We met him in the hall."
+
+"Who is this new acquaintance, Jessie?" asked Sandow, with an interest
+not usual to him. "I have heard nothing about her."
+
+Jessie felt now, when the moment for the first equivocation had
+arrived, the whole weight of the responsibility she had undertaken;
+however, she had gone too far to be able to draw back. She returned
+hesitatingly,
+
+"She is a young German, who has been strongly recommended to me from
+New York. She has come here to look for a situation as companion, and I
+thought--I wished"--
+
+"Yes, you have gone pretty far," interrupted Gustave. "This Miss Palm
+seems to have taken your sympathies by storm; just think, Frank, Miss
+Clifford has offered her her own house, and seriously intends to give
+her to us for a companion."
+
+Jessie cast an indignant glance at him, but was obliged to accept the
+proffered help.
+
+"I have certainly invited Miss Palm for a few weeks," she said. "At
+least, if you have no objection, Uncle Sandow."
+
+"I," said the latter absently, while his eyes already sought the
+evening papers, which lay on the table on the garden terrace. "You
+know, I never interfere in your domestic concerns. No doubt you would
+like a companion for a time, and if this young girl has been well
+recommended, pray arrange the affair as you like."
+
+With this he stepped on to the terrace and seized the newspaper.
+
+"I saw that I must come to your help, Miss Clifford," said Gustave
+aside to Jessie. "You are evidently very inexperienced in deception."
+
+"You seem to think it a reproach," said Jessie, in a voice equally low,
+but trembling with anger. "Certainly I have not yet brought the art to
+such perfection as you have."
+
+"Oh! that will come in time," said Gustave encouragingly. "When you are
+in difficulties that way, only turn to me. I am quite at home there."
+
+"Gustave, have you read the evening papers yet?" came from Sandow on
+the terrace. "The German Exchange is very lively; prices are rising
+considerably. Here is your own journal; you will find a notice of it."
+
+"Ah! prices are rising? really?" asked Gustave, stepping on to the
+terrace and taking the German paper which his brother offered him.
+
+Sandow immediately buried himself in another sheet, and so did not see
+the air of sovereign contempt with which Gustave turned over the page
+containing the money article, and bestowed his whole attention upon the
+leading article, which was upon the political situation.
+
+Jessie followed him with her eyes, and, as she beheld him bending so
+eagerly over what she supposed to be the money article, she curled her
+lip contemptuously, and thought--
+
+"That poor, poor child! What will be her lot at the side of such an
+egoist?"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+
+Gustave's scheme, which was imagined and carried out with equal skill,
+had now been realized. The entrance of the young stranger into the
+family took place the next day, but so easily and naturally was it
+managed, that Sandow had not the faintest suspicion of anything
+unusual. But Frida was, and remained, a stranger in the strange house,
+however hard and determined the struggle to appear at ease, and to show
+her gratitude for the protection afforded her. Perhaps the unaccustomed
+splendour of her surroundings oppressed her, for unquestionably they
+stood out in sharpest contrast to her former life. She remained silent
+and self-contained, and all the kindness with which Jessie received her
+did not succeed in thawing her shy reserve.
+
+Miss Clifford tried in vain to learn more of the family circumstances
+and former life of the girl; Frida seemed purposely to avoid any such
+conversations, and even the warm and freely displayed sympathy of the
+other failed to draw from her one word of confidence. That naturally
+tended to estrange Jessie, especially as she soon discovered that the
+stranger by no means belonged to those gentle natures which tremble
+away from all that is strange or painful. On the contrary, Frida often
+unconsciously betrayed a very energetic will, a repressed but profound
+passion. And yet this slavish subjection and obedience to another's
+will; it was incomprehensible.
+
+Gustave played his part far more successfully. He showed himself in his
+brother's presence polite, but with the politeness of a perfect
+stranger. Not a word, not the slightest sign, betrayed any mental
+understanding, or even suggested a closer acquaintance than appeared;
+never for one moment did he lose his self-control. He seemed still more
+agreeable and high-spirited than ever, and all Jessie's attempts to
+make him feel her contempt met with such a ready sarcasm that she
+invariably quitted the field.
+
+Sandow himself took little notice of Frida. Generally he showed little
+attention or interest in household matters. The greater part of the day
+was passed in town at the office, and the morning and evening hours,
+which were spent in the villa, instead of being dedicated to relaxation
+or amusement, were devoted to business occupations in his own rooms.
+
+He saw Frida only at table, and treated her with careless civility, and
+on her side there was no approach to a closer acquaintance, though she
+was there precisely with that object. But either she possessed no skill
+in that direction, or her obedience failed just where it was needed to
+fulfil her task. At all events, she and the man in whose house she was
+living were as strange to each other at the end of a week as they had
+been on her first arrival.
+
+The two gentlemen had just returned from town, and the whole party were
+seated at table. Gustave, who as usual bore the chief weight of the
+conversation, was amusing the ladies by describing in the most
+enjoyable manner, a scene which had taken place in the office during
+the afternoon. Sandow, who could not endure anything which concerned
+business to be turned into ridicule, put in a few contradictory
+remarks, but his brother continued to entertain his listeners with an
+account of the certainly comical misunderstanding.
+
+"I assure you it was incomparable, the excitement of this zealous agent
+of Jenkins and Co., who had come at full speed from New York, and
+persisted in taking me for a would-be settler, thirsting for a farm. He
+would have dragged mo by force to the other end of the world, that I
+might be made the happy possessor of a piece of land, and looked the
+picture of despair when my brother entered and put an end to the
+misunderstanding."
+
+"You brought it on yourself," said Sandow angrily. "You drove the man
+so into a corner with your endless questions that it was only natural
+that he should fall into the mistake."
+
+"Do I look like an intending farmer?" cried Gustave. "It is the first
+time in my life that any one has discovered in me an enthusiasm for
+spade and hoe. It would be, at all events, a fresh field of activity
+which I might attempt. I am only afraid that I should be worth still
+less there than at the office."
+
+"That would be difficult," said Sandow drily, but his brother only
+laughed at the implication, and observed to Miss Clifford that it was
+really incomprehensible how little recognition his valuable services at
+the desk received from any quarter.
+
+Frida had become attentive during the last dialogue. Usually she never
+joined uninvited in the conversation, but this time she listened with
+breathless interest, and then turned to Gustave with the question--
+
+"Jenkins and Co., the great firm in New York which is now sending out
+advertisements and agents for the German emigration?"
+
+"Quite right, Miss Palm," said Gustave. "Is the firm known to you?"
+
+"Not to me; I was only a few weeks in New York, but it was often spoken
+of in the German family where I lived. People spoke of it with much
+doubt, and considered it a misfortune that Jenkins should have drawn
+this also within the circle of his speculations."
+
+"Why? Does he not bear a good reputation?" asked Gustave, with apparent
+indifference.
+
+"That must be the case. They say he is the most unprincipled
+speculator, and has become rich through all kinds of dishonourable
+means, and would not for a moment hesitate to sacrifice to his avarice
+the welfare of all who confide in him."
+
+Jessie sat in painful confusion while listening to this unsuspecting
+remark. However ignorant she might be of the business affairs, she was
+aware, from many allusions, that her guardian had commercial
+intercourse with this firm.
+
+Sandow bit his lip, and was about to turn the conversation, when his
+brother said emphatically--
+
+"You must have been misinformed, Miss Palm. Jenkins and Co. belong to
+our business circle; indeed, we have done business with them for
+years."
+
+Frida turned pale. It was not embarrassment, but perfect horror that
+her features expressed, as if she could not, would not, believe what
+she had just heard.
+
+Now Sandow took up the conversation, and said in his sharpest tone--
+
+"You see, Miss Palm, how painful it may be when one believes such evil
+reports, and repeats them too. My brother is quite right. Mr. Jenkins
+is, and has long been, a business friend of mine."
+
+"Then I beg pardon; I had no idea of it," said Frida softly, but her
+pallor became more deadly, and suddenly she opened wide and full her
+dark eyes on the man before whom she had always shyly sunk them.
+
+There was something singular in these great dark eyes, something like a
+fearful doubt, an anxious question, and Sandow seemed to feel it, the
+proud, stiff-necked merchant, who bore no opposition, and had crushed
+to the ground all the efforts of his brother; he could not support this
+look. He turned hastily away, seized his glass, and emptied it at a
+draught.
+
+A painful silence, which lasted some moments, followed. Jessie tried at
+last to start another subject, and Gustave supported her to the best of
+his ability, but the attempt flagged.
+
+Sandow appeared unable to master his vexation. Frida sat speechless,
+and looked at her plate. It was a relief to all when the meal was over.
+The ladies left the room, and Gustave was just following them when his
+brother called him back.
+
+"What do you really think of this Miss Palm?"
+
+"That is hard to say. I have not spoken much with her; she seems very
+shy and reserved."
+
+"To judge by her appearance certainly, but I do not believe in it. In
+her eyes lies something far removed from shyness. Singular eyes! I have
+seen them distinctly to-day for the first time, and try in vain to
+remember where I have met them before. The girl has only just come to
+America?"
+
+ "About a month ago, I heard from Miss Clifford."
+
+"I remember Jessie told me so. And yet there is something familiar in
+those features, though I cannot recall what it is."
+
+Gustave examined closely the expression of his brother's face, while
+with apparent carelessness he replied--
+
+"Perhaps it is a passing likeness which you observe."
+
+"Likeness--with whom?" asked Sandow earnestly, while he supported his
+head on his hand, and lost in deepest meditation looked before him.
+
+All at once he arose, and, as if angry with himself at such involuntary
+interest, said--
+
+"Her remark at dinner was singularly wanting in tact."
+
+"She was certainly quite innocent of any ill intention. She could have
+had no suspicion of your connection with Jenkins, or she would have
+been silent. She just repeated what she had heard. You see what a
+reputation your 'friend' bears."
+
+Sandow shrugged his shoulders contemptuously.
+
+"With whom? With a few sentimental Germans, who have brought their
+narrow, provincial ideas from Europe with them, and are determined not
+to see that our commerce rests on quite other grounds. Whoever will be
+successful here must dare; and quite differently from in Europe, where
+people are still swayed by trivial circumstances. Clifford was one of
+the anxious and timid ones. I have had hard work enough to drive him
+forwards. Hence, up to the time of my arrival, he lived in very
+moderate circumstances; it was only when the guidance of the business
+fell into my hands that he became a rich man, and the firm entered the
+ranks of the best in the town. But while we are speaking of Jenkins,
+you have now had ample time to consider my request, and I await your
+final answer."
+
+"Then you are still determined to undertake the thing in conjunction
+with Jenkins?"
+
+"Certainly! Do you suppose that my opinion varies from day to day, or
+that childish chatter such as we have just heard could make me change?"
+
+"No, I do not suppose so, but that is just why it seemed strange to me
+that such 'childish gossip' should oblige you to cast down your eyes."
+
+"Gustave, take care!" cried Sandow, his growing passion hardly
+repressed. "I bear more from you than from anyone else, but this affair
+will positively separate us. I saw at a glance that you caused the
+misunderstanding with the agent on purpose to learn how far his
+instructions went, and I know, too, to whom the remark was directed
+with which you reproved Miss Palm. But you will gain nothing of me by
+such means. What I have once decided to do, that I will do, cost what
+it may, and for the last time I give you the choice; but, if you refuse
+me your assistance"--
+
+"You are mistaken," interrupted Gustave. "Some days ago I wrote to the
+_K--che Zeitung_ and asked for room for a long article on the subject;
+naturally they will be glad to have one from my pen. Most likely it
+will appear next month."
+
+Sandow was speechless. This quite unexpected submission astonished him
+greatly, and with a certain amount of suspicion he asked--
+
+"You will let me see the article before you send it?"
+
+"Certainly; you shall read it word for word."
+
+The clouds began to disappear from Sandow's brow.
+
+"I am glad, very glad. It would have been very painful to me if a
+refusal on your part had led to a breach between us."
+
+"On my account, or on that of the Clifford's money?" asked Gustave,
+with overflowing bitterness.
+
+"Jessie's fortune is not endangered by this speculation," said Sandow,
+shortly and emphatically. "It is principally placed in very good
+securities, and Clifford stated expressly in his will that his
+daughter's inheritance should not be risked in any speculation before
+she came of age or married. If it will soothe your tender conscience, I
+can assure you that your future wife has not the slightest interest in
+this affair. I have gone into it at my own risk, and stand to win or
+lose alone."
+
+He rose to go. Gustave rose too.
+
+"One more question, Frank. You have gone very heavily into this
+speculation?"
+
+"With half of all I possess! You see its success is most important to
+me; therefore I am very glad that we are at last agreed. I repeat, that
+sort of petty morality won't answer at the present day; sooner or later
+you will see that for yourself."
+
+"With the half of all he possesses!" murmured Gustave, following the
+speaker. "That is bad, very bad! Here we must go to work with the
+greatest caution!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+When the brothers entered the drawing-room they found it deserted, but
+Frida stood outside on the terrace. She could not have heard them
+approach, for as Sandow passed out at the French window she turned
+hastily round, and the traces of tears were clearly seen. She rapidly
+passed her handkerchief over her face, but it was impossible to conceal
+her emotion. It was not usual with the merchant to display much
+consideration for the feelings of others, but here he could easily
+connect the girl's distress with the painful conversation at the
+dinner-table, and in a sudden accession of sympathy he tried to help
+her through her trouble.
+
+"You need not be so anxious to hide your tears, Miss Palm," said he.
+"Here in a strange country you feel home-sick, I am sure."
+
+He seemed to have touched the right chord, for in the trembling tone
+with which Frida replied lay the plainest proof of its truth.
+
+"Yes, an inexpressible home-sickness!"
+
+"Naturally, you have been such a short time here," said Sandow,
+carelessly. "All Germans feel that at first, but it soon passes away.
+If one is lucky in the New World one is glad to forget old times, and
+in the end rejoices at having turned one's back on them. Do not look so
+shocked, as if I had said something monstrous. I speak from my own
+experience."
+
+Frida certainly had looked shocked. Her eyes, yet moist with tears,
+shot forth a glance of scorn and dislike as she hastily cried--
+
+"You cannot be serious, Mr. Sandow. I shall forget, give up my country,
+even the recollection of it? Never, never!"
+
+Sandow looked rather surprised at this passionate protest from the
+quiet girl; round his lips played a half contemptuous, half pitiful
+smile as he replied--
+
+"I reckon you well disposed to learn that. The misfortune of most
+Germans here is that they hold so fast to the past, that the present
+and future are allowed to glide away unnoticed. Home-sickness is one of
+those sickly, affected sentiments which are sometimes considered as
+poetic and interesting, while in real life they are only hindrances.
+Whoever will get on here must keep his head clear and his eyes open, in
+order to seize and profit by every chance. You are compelled by
+circumstances to seek for a living here, and this weak longing and
+dreaming will not help you in that."
+
+Hard and heartless though these words might sound, they were spoken
+with perfect sincerity. The unfortunate remark about his business
+friend, which might have been expected to irritate and embitter the
+merchant, seemed, on the contrary, to have awakened an interest in the
+girl, whom till then he had scarcely observed.
+
+Frida gave no spoken contradiction to the lesson he condescended to
+give her, and which chilled her inmost heart. But her questioning,
+reproachful look said enough, and these serious, dark eyes seemed to
+produce an extraordinary effect on the usually unimpressionable man.
+This time he did not avoid the look, but bore it unflinchingly.
+Suddenly his voice took involuntarily a milder tone, and he said--
+
+"You are still young, Miss Palm, very young, far too young to wander
+about the world alone. Was there, then, no one in your native land who
+could offer you a shelter?"
+
+"No, no one!" came almost inaudibly from the lips of the girl.
+
+"Of course--you are an orphan. I heard that from my niece. And the
+relation who invited you to New York died while you were on your way
+there?"
+
+The slight inclination of the head which Frida made might be
+interpreted in the affirmative, but a burning blush overspread her
+face, and her eyes sought the ground.
+
+"That is really very sad. How was it possible to find a proper refuge
+in New York, where you were quite a stranger?"
+
+The flush on the girl's cheeks became still deeper.
+
+"My fellow-travellers took charge of me," she answered hesitatingly.
+"They took me to a countryman, the pastor of a German church, where I
+was most kindly received."
+
+"And this gentleman recommended you to my niece. I know her mother had
+numerous connections in New York, with some of whom Jessie keeps up a
+correspondence. She feels such warm sympathy for you, that you need
+have no anxiety for the future. With the recommendation of Miss
+Clifford, it will not be difficult to find a suitable place."
+
+Frida appeared as unpractised in falsehood as Jessie. With the latter
+she had not been obliged to use the deception which was necessary in
+speaking to the master of the house. Jessie had from the first been
+acquainted with circumstances which must be carefully concealed from
+Sandow, even now when he began to display some interest in her. But the
+manner of the girl showed how hard her part was. Sandow knew her shy
+and taciturn, but this obstinate silence appeared to annoy him.
+
+As he received no reply, he turned abruptly away, and went into the
+garden. Frida drew a long breath, as if released from some burden, and
+returned to the drawing-room. Here she was met by Gustave, who, though
+remaining in the background, and apparently quite indifferent to the
+conversation, had, in reality, not lost a word of it.
+
+"Listen to me, Frida, I am not at all satisfied with you," he began in
+a tone of reproof. "What was the object of your coming here? What do
+you mean by avoiding my brother at every opportunity, actually running
+away from him? You make no attempt at a nearer acquaintance; the rare
+moments when he is approachable are allowed to pass unused by, and you
+maintain complete silence when he speaks to you. I have smoothed the
+way for you, and now you must try to walk in it alone."
+
+ Frida had listened to this lecture in silence; but now she drew
+herself up and said hastily--
+
+"I cannot!"
+
+"What can you not do?"
+
+"Keep the promise which I made to you. You know you half forced it from
+me. Against my will am I here, against my will have I undertaken to
+play the part to which you have condemned me. But I cannot carry it
+through, it is beyond my strength. Let me go home again, here I can do
+no good."
+
+"Indeed?" cried Gustave angrily. "That is a brilliant idea. For this
+have I crossed the sea with you, and made deadly enemies of my
+publisher and the editor, who were determined not to let me go. For
+this I sit patiently at the office desk under the weight of Miss
+Clifford's supreme contempt, and all that Miss Frida may declare, once
+for all, 'I will stay no longer.' But it won't do. Surely you are not
+going to cast away your arms after the struggle of one week. On the
+contrary, I must request that you will stay and carry out what we have
+begun."
+
+The girl's dark eyes rested sadly and earnestly on the speaker, as if
+reproving his careless tone.
+
+"Do not call me ungrateful! I know what I owe you, what you have done
+for me; but the task is harder than I had thought. I can feel no
+affection for this cold, hard man, and he will never feel any for me,
+of that I have the strongest conviction. Had I once seen a kindly
+glance in his eyes, once heard a cordial word from his lips, I might
+have drawn nearer to him; but this frigid character, that nothing can
+warm, nothing can break through, drives me ever farther and farther
+away."
+
+Instead of replying, Gustave took her hand, and drew her beside him on
+the sofa.
+
+"Have I ever said that the task would be easy?" he asked. "It is hard
+enough, harder than I could have believed, but not impossible. With
+this shy avoidance of him, you will certainly attain nothing. You must
+grapple with the foe; he is so strongly mailed that he can only be
+taken by storm."
+
+"I cannot!" cried Frida passionately. "I tell you that no voice within
+me speaks for him, and if I can neither give nor receive love, what
+shall I do here? Steal my way into a home and fortune. You cannot wish
+that, and if you did, I would refuse both, were they offered to me with
+the heartless indifference with which he permitted me a refuge in his
+house."
+
+With the last words she sprang from her seat. Gustave quietly drew her
+down again.
+
+"Now you are getting beyond all bounds, and the end will be an
+obstinate refusal. If I did not know from whom you take that wilful
+obstinacy, that passionate temper which lies under all your outward
+reserve, I would give you another sort of lecture. But these faults are
+hereditary, it is no use fighting against them."
+
+The girl seized his hand and held it in both her own, as she
+entreated--
+
+"Let me away, let me go home again, I beg, I beg! What does it matter
+if I am poor. I can work. I am young, and you will not desert me.
+Thousands are in the same position, and must struggle with life
+themselves. I will rather a thousand times do that than beg for a
+recognition which is withheld from me. I only followed your wishes,
+when you brought me to your brother; I need neither him nor his
+riches."
+
+"But he needs you," said Gustave impressively. "And he needs your love
+more than you believe."
+
+The girl's lips trembled with a bitter smile.
+
+"There you are certainly wrong! I know little of the world or of men;
+but I know very well that Mr. Sandow neither needs nor wishes for love.
+He loves nothing in the world, not Jessie, who has grown up under his
+eyes almost like a daughter of his own; not you, his own brother. I
+have seen only too plainly how far he is from you both. He knows
+nothing but the desire for wealth, for gain, and yet he is rich enough.
+Is it true, really true, that he is connected with this Jenkins, that
+such a man belongs to his friends?"
+
+"Child, you understand nothing about that," said Gustave, evasively.
+"Whoever, like my brother, has seen all the hopes of his life
+shattered, whose every blessing has become a curse, every pleasure a
+disappointment, either sinks utterly under such a catastrophe, or he
+leaves his former self entirely behind, and goes on his way another
+man. I know what he was twelve years ago, and what was then living in
+him cannot be quite dead. You shall awaken it, you shall at all events
+try, and that is why I have brought you here."
+
+The deep earnestness with which these words were spoken, did not fail
+of their effect on Frida; but she said, with a shake of the head--
+
+"I am, and must remain a stranger to him. You have yourself forbidden
+me to let him suspect anything of our circumstances."
+
+"Certainly I have, for if he now discovered the truth he would most
+likely repulse you with the utmost harshness; your obstinacy is equal
+to his, and thus all would be lost. But at least you must approach him.
+As yet you have scarcely spoken together. No voice rises in your heart,
+you say. But it must rise in you, in him, and it will rise when you
+have learnt to stand face to face together."
+
+"I will try!" said Frida, with a deep sigh. "But if I fail, if I only
+meet with harshness and suspicion"--
+
+"You must remember that he is a man much sinned against," interrupted
+Gustave, "so much, that he has a right to look with mistrust and
+suspicion on all, and to draw back where another would lovingly open
+wide his arms. You are innocent, you suffer for the faults of others;
+but all the weight, poor child, falls on you."
+
+The girl made no reply, but two hot tears rolled down her cheeks, while
+she rested her head on the speaker's shoulder. He stroked her forehead
+softly and soothingly.
+
+"Poor child! Yes, it is hard, at your age, when all should be joy and
+sunshine, to be already so deeply plunged in hatred and disunion, in
+the whole misery of human life. It has been hard enough to me to reveal
+all this to you; but it entered with such force into your life that it
+was imperative for you to know it. And my Frida does not belong to the
+weak and vacillating, she has something of the energy, and, alas,
+something of the hardness of a certain other nature. So bravely
+forwards, we must conquer in the end!"
+
+Frida dried her tears and forced a smile.
+
+"You are right! I am so ungrateful and stubborn towards you, who have
+done so much for me! You are"--
+
+"The best and noblest of men"--interrupted Gustave, "naturally I am,
+and it is very extraordinary that Miss Clifford will not recognise my
+perfections, though you have so touchingly assured her of them. But now
+go out in the air for a few minutes. You look flushed and tearful, and
+you must do away with these signs of excitement. Meanwhile, I will wait
+here for Jessie. We have not had one dispute to-day, and a wrangle has
+become one of the necessities of life to me, which I cannot do
+without."
+
+Frida obeyed. She left the drawing-room, crossed the terrace, and
+descended into the garden. Slowly she walked through the beautiful
+park-like grounds, which stretched down to the shore, and on which the
+whole skill of the landscape gardener had been spent; but the spot she
+sought, lay in the most distant part of the garden. It was a simple
+bench, shaded by two mighty trees; it afforded an unlimited view over
+the sea, and from the first day, had become the favourite retreat of
+the young stranger. The fresh sea wind cooled Frida's heated cheeks,
+and swept the traces of tears from her face, but the shade on her brow
+defied all its efforts. This shade grew only darker and deeper, while
+she, lost in distant dreams, watched the play of the waves which broke
+upon the beach.
+
+The garden was not so deserted as it seemed, for at no great distance
+voices might be heard. Just by the iron railing which enclosed the
+domain of the villa, stood Sandow with the gardener, and inspected the
+addition, which in the last few days, had been made to the grounds.
+
+The gardener directed, with ill-concealed pride, his attention to the
+work, which was really planned and carried out with great taste and
+skill, but the master of the house did not display much interest in it.
+He cast a careless glance over it, with a few cool words expressed his
+satisfaction, and went again on his way towards the house. Thus he
+passed the bench where Frida sat.
+
+"Is that you, Miss Palm? You have chosen the most retired spot in the
+whole garden for your retreat."
+
+"But also the most beautiful! The view of the sea is so magnificent?"
+
+"That is a matter of taste," said Sandow. "For me that eternal rolling
+up and down has a deadly monotony. I could not long endure it."
+
+He said this in passing, and was on the point of leaving her. She would
+probably have left his remark unanswered, and the conversation would
+have ended there, but Gustave's warning bore fruit. She did not
+preserve that shy silence as usual, but replied in a tone of which the
+deep emotion forced a recognition.
+
+"I love the sea so dearly--and--even if you ridicule me, Mr. Sandow,--I
+cannot forget that my home lies there, beyond those waves."
+
+Sandow did not appear disposed for ridicule. He stood still, his eyes
+followed involuntarily the direction she pointed out, and then rested
+earnestly and musingly on Frida's face, as if he sought something
+there.
+
+It was a misty and rather gloomy afternoon. The clouds hung heavy with
+rain over the scene, and the usually unbounded view over the sunny blue
+waves, was to-day, confined and veiled. One could scarcely see a
+hundred steps away; farther out lay thick fog on the sea, and the
+restlessly moving flood enlightened by no ray of sunshine, showed a
+dark grey tint, which gave it an almost oppressive air of gloom.
+
+Restlessly rolled on the waves, and burst with a hiss into white foam
+on the sand of the shore. Far out in the fog sounded the roaring of the
+distant ocean, and two gulls took their slow flight over the waves and
+vanished in the mist. Frida's eyes followed them dreamily, and she
+started violently when Sandow, who till now had preserved silence,
+suddenly asked--
+
+"What was the name of the clergyman with whom you lived in New York?"
+
+"Pastor Hagen."
+
+"And there you heard those remarks about Jenkins and Co.?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Sandow."
+
+Frida seemed about to add something, but the abruptness with which the
+last question was uttered closed her lips.
+
+"I might have supposed so. These clerical gentlemen with their
+extravagant views of morality, are always ready with a sentence of
+damnation, when a thing does not exactly fit their measure. From the
+pulpit it is much easier to look down on a sinful world, than it is to
+us who must live and struggle in the midst of it. These gentlemen
+should for a moment try what it is, they would soon lose some of their
+virtuous calm and Christian spotlessness, but they would learn to judge
+better of other things of which now they understand absolutely
+nothing."
+
+The bitter sarcasm of these last words would perhaps have terrified
+another, but Frida's spirit rose energetically against it.
+
+"Pastor Hagen is mildness and consideration itself," with a blaze of
+indignation. "Certainly he will never condemn anyone unjustly. It was
+the first and only time that I heard a harsh judgment from his lips,
+and I know that only care for the dangerous position of his countrymen
+drew it from him."
+
+"Does that perhaps mean that he is right?" asked Sandow sharply, while
+almost threateningly he advanced a step nearer.
+
+"I do not know. I am quite strange and unknown to all. But you, Mr.
+Sandow, are acquainted with this man, you must know"--
+
+She dared not complete the sentence, for she felt that every additional
+word might be an insult, and so indeed Sandow seemed to take it. The
+milder tone in which he had begun the conversation, disappeared in the
+wonted cold severity as he returned--
+
+"At all events, I am much surprised to hear how the name and reputation
+of a great firm can be slandered in certain circles. You are still
+almost a child, Miss Palm, and it is easy to imagine, but understand
+nothing of, such things. You cannot know how influential the name of
+Jenkins and Co. is in the commercial world. But those who allow
+themselves such freedom in their slander should consider that and
+beware."
+
+This refutation sounded dry enough, but not convincing. Of the power
+and influence of the man no one had doubted, only that his influence
+was injurious. Frida of course had no idea of the nature of the
+connection between the two houses, but even the mention of the two
+names together had deeply shocked her.
+
+"You are angry with me for my imprudent expressions about your friend,"
+she said. "I repeated unsuspectingly what I had heard, and Pastor
+Hagen's remarks only referred to the danger with which such
+undertakings threaten our emigrants. He has daily in New York before
+his eyes the proof of how deeply such things affect the weal or woe of
+thousands. You cannot know that the interests of your banking-house lie
+certainly far removed from such speculations."
+
+"Now how is it that you are so sure of it?" asked Sandow jestingly, but
+the jest seemed somewhat forced. The dialogue began to disturb him, yet
+he made no effort to break it off; there was something in it which
+charmed and enchained him against his will.
+
+Frida emerged more and more from her reserve. The subject interested
+her in the highest degree, and her voice trembled with deep emotion as
+she replied--
+
+"I have once, only once, seen such a picture of misery, but it has made
+an indelible impression on me. While I was in New York, a number of
+emigrants came to us, Germans, who some years ago had gone to the Far
+West, and were now returning. They had, doubtless, listened too readily
+to the representations of the unscrupulous agents, and had lost
+everything in those pathless woods. There they had left, sacrificed to
+the climate, many of their nearest and dearest; there they had left
+their means, their hopes, their courage--all! The German pastor who had
+warned them before and whom they had not credited, must now advise them
+and procure them the means of returning to their native land. It was
+terrible to see these, once so courageous and strong, now so utterly
+broken down and despairing, and to hear their lamentations. I shall
+never forget it!"
+
+As if overpowered by the recollection, she laid her hand upon her eyes.
+Sandow replied not one word. He had turned away and looked grave and
+motionless out into the mist. Immovable, as if chained to the spot, he
+listened to every word which came with ever-increasing passion and
+excitement from the youthful lips.
+
+"I saw myself, on board the steamer which brought also hundreds of
+emigrants here, how much anxiety and care such a ship carries, how many
+hopes and fears. Happiness is seldom the cause which forces them to
+leave their home. With so many it is the last hope, the last attempt to
+create a new home for themselves out here. And then to think that all
+their hopes fail, all their toil and labour is lost, that they must be
+ruined because one man will enrich himself, because there are men who,
+on purpose, with the fullest knowledge send their brothers into misery,
+to make a gain out of their destruction. I should never have believed
+it possible had I not myself seen it and heard it from those who
+returned!"
+
+She stopped, started at the deadly pallor which overspread the face of
+the man who still stood motionless before her. His features remained
+firm and inflexible as ever, no feeling betrayed itself there, but
+every drop of blood seemed to have forsaken those features, whose fixed
+expression had something unearthly in it. He did not see the anxious
+questioning look of the girl, her sudden silence seemed first to
+restore him to consciousness. With an abrupt movement he drew himself
+up, and passed his hand over his brow.
+
+"One must acknowledge that you stand bravely by your countrymen," said
+he. His voice sounded dull and heavy, as if every word were produced by
+a strong effort.
+
+"So would you if you had an opportunity for doing so," returned Frida,
+with perfect assurance. "You would cast the whole weight of your name
+and position into the scale against such undertakings, and certainly
+you could do far more than an unknown clergyman, whose own duties leave
+him so little time, and who has already so much distress and misery to
+alleviate in his own parish. Mr. Sandow," with suddenly awakening
+confidence, she drew a step nearer to him, "really I did not mean to
+affront you by those heedless words. It is quite possible that report
+has wronged the man, or that Pastor Hagen has been deceived. You do not
+believe it, I can see from your emotion, and you must know him best?"
+
+He was certainly agitated, this man whose hand so convulsively grasped
+the back of the bench, as if he would crush the carved wood with his
+fingers, so agitated that some moments passed before he regained full
+control over his voice.
+
+"We have fallen upon a very disagreeable topic," said he at last
+turning away. "I should never have believed that the timid, quiet
+child, who during the week spent in my house, scarcely dared to raise
+her eyes or open her lips, would blaze out so passionately when
+strangers' interests were concerned. Why have you never shown this side
+before?"
+
+"I dared not. I feared so much"--
+
+Frida said no more, but her eyes which were raised half confidently,
+half timidly to his, expressed what the lips could not, and she was
+understood.
+
+"Whom did you fear? Was it me?"
+
+"Yes," she replied with a deep breath. "I feared you dreadfully till
+this moment."
+
+"But you should not fear me, child!" In Sandow's voice was a tone
+silent for many years and grown quite strange, but which spoke of
+rising warmth and softness. "No doubt I seem cold and stern to you, and
+so I am in the business world, but towards the young guest who has
+sought shelter in my house I would not be so. Do not for the future
+avoid me as you have done. You must not be afraid of me?"
+
+He stretched his hand out to her, but Frida hesitated to take it. She
+became alternately red and pale, some stormy, hardly repressed feeling
+seemed bursting from her control. Suddenly Jessie's voice was heard
+from the terrace. Growing anxious at the long absence of the young
+visitor she called her name. Frida sprang up.
+
+"Miss Clifford calls me, I must go to her. Thank you, Mr. Sandow, I
+will not be afraid of you again?"
+
+And hastily, before he could prevent her, she pressed her lips to the
+offered hand, and fled away through the shrubbery.
+
+With great astonishment Sandow looked after her. A singular girl! What
+did it mean, this strange mixture of shyness and confidence, of blazing
+passion and such power of self-repression? It was a riddle to him, but
+just with this unexpected, contradictory character, Frida succeeded in
+what the cleverest calculations could not have done--in awaking a deep
+and abiding interest in the heart of a man generally so cold and
+indifferent.
+
+He had indeed every reason to be irritated and annoyed "with the
+fanciful girl, with her exaggerated ideas," but through his irritation
+another feeling forced its way, the same which he experienced when he
+first looked into these dark childish eyes, and of which he could
+scarcely say whether it caused him pain or pleasure.
+
+He forgot, perhaps, for the first time in his life, that his study, and
+his writing table laden with important letters awaited him. Slowly he
+sank on to the bench and gazed at the restless rolling sea.
+
+"A deadly monotony" he had said, of this eternal motion. The taste for
+the beauties of nature had long ago died out in him, like so many other
+tastes, but the words of the just concluded conversation still rang in
+his ears. Truly; on the other side of this heaving ocean lay his native
+land, his home. Sandow had not thought of it for years. What was home
+to him? He had been long estranged from it, he clung with all the roots
+of his present life to the land he could thank for what he was. The
+past lay as far distant from him as the unseen coast of home, yonder in
+the mist.
+
+The proud rich merchant, whose name was known in every quarter of the
+globe, who was accustomed to reckon with hundreds of thousands,
+certainly looked back with contemptuous pity on the past, on the narrow
+life of a subordinate official in a provincial German town. How close
+and confined was then the horizon of his life, how wearily must he then
+struggle to make both ends of his paltry salary meet, till at last,
+after long hoping and waiting, he reached a position which allowed him
+to establish his modest household. And yet how that poor narrow life
+had been beautified and ennobled by the sunshine of love and happiness
+which was shed around it.
+
+A young and beautiful wife, a blooming child, the present full of
+sunshine, the future full of joyful hopes and dreams, he needed nothing
+more, his whole life was overflowing with happiness, but what a fearful
+end to all that joy!
+
+An old friend of Sandow's, who had grown up with him, who had shared
+his boyish amusements, and later had accompanied him to the university,
+returned, after a long absence, to his native town. He was well-off and
+independent, and his life was dimmed by no cares for the morrow, unlike
+his friend; who, however, received him with open arms and led him to
+his home. And then began one of those domestic tragedies which are
+often concealed for years, till at last some catastrophe brings them to
+light.
+
+The blinded man suspected not that his wife's heart was estranged from
+him, that treachery spun its webs around him under his own roof. His
+love, his confidence, firm as if founded on a rock, helped to blind
+him, and when his eyes were at last opened, it was too late, he saw his
+happiness and honour lying in ruin before him. Almost driven mad by
+despair, he lost self-control and struck the destroyer of his happiness
+to the ground.
+
+Fate had at least preserved him from that last misery,
+blood-guiltiness. Although severely injured, the traitor recovered
+slowly, but Sandow had to pay the penalty of his deed by an
+imprisonment of many a weary year. Though Right was unquestionably on
+his side, the letter of the law sentenced him, and that sentence
+destroyed his whole existence.
+
+His situation was naturally lost, his official career closed. She, who
+had once been his wife, had after the necessary separation had taken
+place, given her hand to the man for whose sake she had betrayed her
+husband, and whose name she now bore. And the one thing left to him,
+the one thing the law allowed to the desolate man, that he himself put
+from him. He had learnt to doubt all, all that he had once considered
+pure and true, he now looked on as lying deception; thus he believed no
+more in his paternal rights, and refused to recognise the little being
+which had once been the joy of his heart.
+
+He left it to the mother without even seeing it again. Under these
+circumstances it was impossible to contemplate returning to his native
+town.
+
+Only America was open to him, that refuge of so many shattered
+existences. Despairing of himself and of the world, poor and with the
+prison stain upon his brow, he went there, but it was the turning point
+in his life. There he rose from deepest misery to riches and splendour.
+
+From that time success had remained true to Frank Sandow. Whatever he
+ventured brought the richest returns, and soon he found only too much
+pleasure in these ventures. He dragged the quiet and timorous Clifford
+with him into the boldest and fool-hardiest speculations, and, as since
+his death, the reins had been entirely in his own hands, he could now
+brook no control.
+
+There was something almost terrible in this restless, unceasing, hunt
+for gain in a man, who heaped up riches, but had no one for whom to
+gather them. But man must have something to cling to, something to give
+an aim and object to his life, and when the nobler good is lost, it is
+often the demon of gold which makes itself lord of the empty shrine.
+
+Thus Sandow had fallen a victim. This demon spurred him ever forwards
+to new gains, drove him from one wild speculation to another, and led
+him to place his all on a single card. But it made him also insensible
+of every joy of life, to peace or happiness.
+
+The chief of the great American banking house had indeed won for
+himself an imposing position, but his countenance showed only furrows
+of care, only the traces of feverish excitement; of peace and happiness
+there was no sign there.
+
+The mist over the sea had grown thicker and spread farther and farther.
+Like dusky visions it floated to the land, and out of it rolled and
+burst the gloomy billows. The wind which now arose in its full might,
+drove them more strongly and violently on the strand. They came no more
+with a light splash, but roared and foamed on the beach. Threateningly
+they rushed to the feet of the lonely man, who darkly, and as if lost
+in thought, looked down on them. It was as if every wave repeated the
+words he had just heard, and that out of the fog arose the pictures
+they had called up before him.
+
+Singular! What Gustave's energetic representations could not produce,
+this childish chatter had succeeded in doing. The earnest warnings of
+his brother had brought no effect on the merchant, he cast them off
+contemptuously as "sentimental notions," as the "ideas of a novice,"
+and finally silenced him with a threat.
+
+He had long been unaccustomed to take the weal and woe of others into
+consideration in his calculations. "One must reckon with men as with
+figures!" That was the principle of his life, and the foundation of his
+riches. Even in this speculation which had been proposed to him by his
+correspondent, he had reckoned with them, and it had not once occurred
+to him that men's lives should be thought of too. And now an
+inexperienced child, who had no idea of the effect her words could
+produce, had dared to speak thus to him. The words worked and fermented
+in him, he could not tear the thoughts from him.
+
+"How much care and anxiety such a ship bears, how many hopes and
+fears!" Sandow had experienced that too, he too had landed here with
+his shattered hopes, with the last despairing attempt to begin a new
+life here. Success had come to him, friends and relations had held out
+a helping hand to him. Without that, he also might have succumbed.
+
+But still came hundreds of ships, and the thousands that they carried
+had made also their last venture, gazed also fearfully around for any
+helping hand which might be stretched out to them. There was still room
+for many here, and the New World might look more benevolently on them
+than the Old.
+
+But, whoever seized the hand which Jenkins and Co. stretched out to
+them, went to their ruin. And there was room for so many in that
+district, where famine and fever awaited them. They had bought that
+enormous territory for a song, and must at any price people it, to
+pocket the hoped-for enormous gain. There were really men who sent
+their brothers to destruction to enrich themselves.
+
+Sandow sprang suddenly up. He would tear himself from these thoughts,
+which seemed burnt into his memory, from these words, which haunted him
+like spectres. He could endure the monotonous roar of the sea no
+longer, and the mist lay like a heavy weight upon his breast. It
+literally hunted him from the place and into the house. But it was in
+vain that he locked himself into his room, that he buried himself in
+letters and despatches. Outside the sea roared and rolled, and
+something within him arose and struggled upwards--upwards--something
+which had lain asleep for years, and at last awoke--his conscience!
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+Jessie sat in the garden and drew, and opposite to her in the arbour
+sat Gustave Sandow. He had just returned from town, where he had
+occupied himself about everything imaginable, except, alas! the one
+thing which was expected from the future head of the house of Clifford.
+He had not even set his foot within the counting-house. For there were
+so many other things to attend to. First he had visited a rich banker
+in the town, who had just received from Europe a costly painting on
+which he wished Gustave's opinion. As both owner and critic were alike
+eager on the subject, the inspection extended itself over the whole,
+tolerably valuable picture gallery of the banker, and occupied several
+hours.
+
+After that, both gentlemen drove to a great meeting on some town
+interests, and at which Mr. Sandow, jun., was an eager and interested
+listener.
+
+In conclusion, he had a small private meeting which some gentlemen of
+the press had called together in honour of their former colleague. The
+state of affairs in Germany and America was here thoroughly examined,
+and meanwhile it had become so late, that Gustave considered it quite
+unnecessary to visit his brother's office. He preferred driving direct
+to the villa to keep the ladies company.
+
+After such a thoroughly satisfactory day's work, he thought himself
+justified in satisfying the craving of his heart, which could only
+happen when he, at least once a day, had a wrangle with Miss Clifford.
+With this intention he rapidly sought and found her.
+
+During the last few weeks a noticeable change had taken place in
+Jessie. Some secret trouble, which she did not perhaps acknowledge to
+herself, cast a shade over the lovely face, which looked paler and more
+serious than before, and round the mouth, too, lay a half bitter, half
+painful line which was formerly not there. The presence of Gustave was
+clearly not likely to cheer her, for she avoided looking at him, and
+earnestly continued her drawing, while, to all his remarks, she
+returned only short and unconnected replies.
+
+But it was not so easy to frighten Gustave away. When all his attempts
+at conversation failed he rose and bent over the half-finished drawing,
+which he examined with a critical eye.
+
+"A very pretty subject! It promises much, but you must entirely change
+the perspective, Miss Clifford, it is quite wrong."
+
+At last that produced the intended effect. Jessie raised her head, and
+looked indignantly at the uncalled adviser.
+
+"You don't draw yourself, Mr. Sandow, I believe?"
+
+"No, but I criticise."
+
+"So I see. Nevertheless you will permit me to retain my perspective as
+it is, until a real artist has convinced me of its errors."
+
+Gustave calmly took his seat again.
+
+"Just as you please! I propose that we should call in Frida as arbiter.
+She has remarkable talent for drawing, and it has been cultivated with
+the greatest care."
+
+"Frida?" repeated Jessie, letting her pencil rest, "I wanted to speak
+to you about her. She seems really to have nearly gained her end, for
+my guardian's interest in her increases day by day. For my part, this
+is rather perplexing, considering the indifference with which he
+treated her at first, but Frida must have found out how to get the
+right side of him, for suddenly he displayed so deep an interest in her
+as I had not conceived possible with his dry cold nature. Already he
+cannot bear to miss her. He shows unmistakable displeasure if the
+possibility of her departure is spoken of, and this morning, without
+the slightest remark on my side, he proposed to me that she should
+remain here permanently as my companion."
+
+"Did he really propose that?" cried Gustave eagerly. "That is more, far
+more, than I had yet dared to hope. Certainly we are not far from our
+goal!"
+
+"I think so too, and therefore it will soon be time to release the poor
+child from the painful and humiliating position in which she is. Here
+she is regarded as a total stranger, while she really stands in the
+closest connection with you; and is forced to keep up a constant
+succession of deceptions. I often see, at some harmless remark of my
+uncle's which she is obliged to avoid, how the blood flies to her
+cheeks, how the part she is forced to play embarrasses and distresses
+her. I fear she will not be able to endure it much longer."
+
+"She must!" declared Gustave. "I know that it is hard for her, and
+sometimes she tries to rebel, but I understand already how to manage
+her."
+
+Between Miss Clifford's delicate brows appeared a deep frown of
+displeasure.
+
+"I acknowledge, Mr. Sandow, that your tone and your whole manner of
+treating Frida are quite incomprehensible to me. You treat her
+completely as a child that must obey implicitly your higher will, and
+seem quite to forget that she must take a place at your side some day."
+
+"She must first be educated for it," said Gustave condescendingly. "At
+present she is scarcely sixteen, and I am thirty, therefore the child
+must look on me with respect."
+
+"So it seems! I should expect something more from my future husband,
+than that he should set himself up as an object of my respect."
+
+"Yes, Miss Clifford, that is quite different. No one would permit
+himself such a tone towards you."
+
+"I suppose my fortune gives me a claim to more consideration. With the
+poor dependent orphan, whom one elevates to one's own position, any
+manner is permitted."
+
+The remark sounded so bitter that Gustave noticed it, and cast a
+questioning glance at the young lady.
+
+"Do you think that Frida belongs to those natures which allow
+themselves to be thus elevated?"
+
+"No; I think her very proud, and far more courageous than is usual at
+her age. Just on that account is this unquestioning docility
+incomprehensible."
+
+"Yes. I am rather successful in training," acknowledged Gustave. "But
+as to your proposition, to tell the whole to my brother immediately,
+that is impossible. You don't know my brother; his obstinacy is by no
+means conquered, and would return doubly strong if he discovered our
+plot. The moment that he learnt that I had brought Frida here with a
+decided purpose, his anger would burst forth, and he would send us both
+back across the ocean."
+
+"That would indeed be a misfortune, for then the advantage of the whole
+intrigue would be lost."
+
+Jessie must indeed have been irritated before she allowed the hateful
+word "intrigue" to pass her lips, but it slipped out, and Gustave quite
+accepted it.
+
+"Quite right; that is what I fear, and it would never do to jeopardise
+it thus, now my heart is set on remaining here."
+
+There was a peculiar light in his eyes at the last words. Jessie did
+not see it; she had bent again over her drawing, and worked away with
+renewed zeal, but the pencil trembled in her hand, and the strokes
+became hasty and uncertain. Gustave watched her for a while; at last he
+rose again.
+
+"No, Miss Clifford, it really will not do to treat the perspective like
+that. Permit me one moment."
+
+And without further ceremony, he took the pencil from her hand, and
+began to alter the drawing. Jessie was about to make a violent protest,
+but she quickly saw that the pencil was in a very practised hand, and
+that a few powerful strokes entirely corrected the error.
+
+"You declared you could not draw," said she, wavering between anger and
+surprise.
+
+"Oh! It is only a little _dilletante_ performance, which I do not
+venture to call talent. Only enough to enable me to criticise. Here,
+Miss Clifford."
+
+He returned the leaf to her. Jessie looked silently at it and then at
+him.
+
+"I really admire your versatility, of which you have just given me a
+proof. You are everything imaginable, Mr. Sandow! Politician,
+journalist, artist.--"
+
+"And merchant," said Gustave, completing the sentence. "Yes, I am a
+sort of universal genius, but share alas, the fate of all geniuses; I
+am not recognised by my contemporaries."
+
+His half-ironical inclination showed that for the moment he looked upon
+her as representing his contemporaries. Jessie made no reply, but began
+to collect her drawing materials.
+
+"It is quite chilly. I ought to go in. Pray do not disturb yourself; I
+will send the servant to fetch my things," and declining with a motion
+of her hand any assistance from him, she took the drawing from the
+table, and left the summer-house.
+
+Gustave shook his head as he looked after her.
+
+"I seem really to have fallen into disgrace; the last few weeks she has
+been quite changed. I would rather hear the most violent attack on my
+selfishness and want of thought than this cool and measured bitterness.
+I fear it is high time for me to tell all the truth, and yet I dare not
+risk Frida's future by so doing. A premature catastrophe would spoil
+all."
+
+At that moment a carriage drove past the villa. It was Sandow returning
+from business. He came direct to the garden.
+
+"Here already!" was the short greeting he bestowed on his brother.
+"Where are the ladies?"
+
+"Miss Clifford has just left me."
+
+"And Miss Palm?"
+
+"I suppose she is on the beach. I have not seen her since my return."
+
+Sandow's eyes impatiently sought the farther part of the garden. He
+seemed disappointed that Frida had not come to meet him as usual.
+
+"I have not seen you since this morning," he remarked with temper. "You
+certainly asked leave on account of pressing business, still I expected
+to see you in the office later. What kind of business can you have
+which occupies a whole day?"
+
+"Well, first I was with Henderson, the banker."
+
+"Ah! About the new loan which is being raised in M----. I am glad that
+you have seen him yourself."
+
+"Naturally about the loan," said Gustave, who did not scruple to leave
+his brother in error about his business proceedings, though in his
+wanderings through the picture gallery there had been no mention of the
+projected loan. "And then there was some talk about private affairs.
+When Mrs. Henderson was last here she saw our young country woman, and
+is quite charmed with her. It is remarkable what an effect this still,
+timid child produces on every one. From their first meeting, Miss
+Clifford, too, became one of her warmest friends."
+
+"The child is not so quiet and shy as you imagine," said Sandow, whose
+eyes continued to look towards the shore. "Beneath that reserve is a
+deeply emotional, a quite uncommon nature. I never suspected it till
+accident revealed it to me."
+
+"And since then, you, too, belong to the conquered. Really, Frank, I
+scarcely know you again. You treat this young girl, this almost total
+stranger, with a consideration, one might almost say a tenderness, of
+which your only and highly deserving brother has never been able to
+boast."
+
+Sandow had seated himself, and thoughtfully supported his head on his
+hand.
+
+"There is something so fresh, so untouched, in such a young creature.
+Against one's will it recalls one's own youthful days. She still clings
+so fast to her enthusiastic ideas, to her dreams of happiness to come,
+and cannot understand that the outer world should look on things under
+such a different aspect. Foolish, childish ideas, which will fall away
+of themselves in the rough school of the world, but while one listens
+to them all one's lost beliefs by degrees revive again."
+
+Again his voice had that peculiar softened tone, which those even who
+best knew the merchant had never heard from his lips, and which seemed
+like an echo from some older, happier time. Frida must indeed have
+understood how to touch the right chord as no one before had done, for
+the very qualities, which in Jessie were regarded as sentimentality and
+exaggeration, had here found their way to the stern, cold heart of
+the man. Gustave felt this contradiction, and said, with a touch of
+satire--
+
+"But all that should not be new to you. You have lived all these years
+in Clifford's family, and Jessie has grown up under your eyes."
+
+"Jessie was always her parents' idolized darling," replied Sandow,
+coldly. "Love and happiness were literally showered upon her, and
+whoever did not treat her with flattery and tenderness, as myself for
+example, was feared and avoided by her. I have always been a stranger
+to this fair-haired, soft and petted child, and since she has been
+grown up, we have become still more distant. But this Frida with her
+wilful reserve, which we must overcome before reaching the real nature,
+has nothing weak and wavering about her. When once the somewhat
+forbidding crust has been broken through, strength and life are found
+beneath. I like such natures, perhaps because I feel something kindred
+in them, and sometimes I am surprised, almost startled, to hear from
+the lips of that girl, remarks and ideas almost identical with what
+were mine at the same age."
+
+Gustave made no reply, but he closely examined his brother's
+countenance. The latter felt this, and, as if ashamed of the warmer
+feeling he had allowed himself to display, immediately stopped, and
+resumed his usual cold business tone and manner.
+
+"You might at least have come to the office for a few hours. There are
+things of importance going on, and another letter from Jenkins has
+arrived. He presses for the fulfilment of your promise with regard to
+the _K--che Zeitung_, and it is certainly high time. You must have
+written your article long since."
+
+"I had not supposed there was any hurry," said Gustave. "For some weeks
+you have not even mentioned the subject."
+
+"There were so many preparations to make. I have kept up an active
+correspondence with New York on the subject."
+
+"Which you have not allowed me to see as you did the former letters."
+
+"Then it was necessary for you to learn all particulars. This time it
+concerned very unpleasant difficulties which I alone must arrange."
+
+"I know; you have tried to release yourself from the whole thing!"
+
+Sandow sprang up, and looked at his brother with the same air of
+speechless astonishment, as formerly when he heard of the journey to
+the much talked of possessions.
+
+"I! Who has betrayed that to you?"
+
+"No one, but many signs led me to suppose so, and now I see that I was
+not mistaken in my supposition."
+
+Sandow looked darkly and suspiciously at his brother, who stood before
+him with perfect composure.
+
+"You have really a dangerous power of observation! With you one must be
+perpetually under control, and even then is not safe in his inmost
+thoughts. Well yes, then, I did wish to withdraw. On closer examination
+the speculation did not seem so favourable, did not promise half the
+profit we had at first believed. I tried to release myself from the
+obligation, or to induce someone else to take my place, but have not
+been successful. Jenkins stands by the completion of our bargain, and I
+have now pledged myself completely. Nothing remains but to promptly
+carry out the first agreement."
+
+He brought out these disjointed remarks with nervous haste, and
+meanwhile played with his pocket-book which he had drawn out. His whole
+manner displayed a violent, hardly suppressed excitement. Gustave did
+not appear to notice it, but replied with calm decision--
+
+"Now there must be some means of freeing oneself from such a bargain."
+
+"No; for the sums which I have already sunk in this undertaking bind my
+hands. I stand the chance of losing all, if I withdraw now. Jenkins is
+just the man to hold me fast, and to use every letter of the contract
+against me, as soon as our interests cease to go hand in hand. So the
+thing must take its course.--Ah! Miss Frida, at last you allow us a
+glimpse of you."
+
+The last words, which sounded like a sigh of relief, were directed to
+the girl who now appeared in the arbour. During the last weeks Frida
+had also altered, but the change took a different form, than with
+Jessie. The childish face formerly so pale had now a rosy tinge, the
+dark eyes were still grave, but they had lost that troubled look. They
+sparkled with glad surprise when they beheld the master of the house,
+whom Frida immediately approached with frank confidingness.
+
+"Are you home already, Mr. Sandow? I did not know, or I should have
+come long ago, but"--she looked at the serious faces of the two men,
+and made a movement as if to leave them--"I am afraid I disturb you."
+
+"Not at all," said Sandow quickly. "We were only debating on some
+business matters, and I am glad to make an end of the discussion. Stay
+here!"
+
+He threw his pocket-book on the table and stretched out his hand. The
+cold, stern man, whose austere manner had never softened even in the
+family circle, seemed at this moment another being. The few weeks must
+have wrought a great change in him.
+
+Gustave greeted Frida in the polite but formal manner, which he always
+showed to her in the presence of his brother.
+
+"I have a message and an invitation for you, Miss Palm," said he. "Mrs.
+Henderson would like to see you soon, in order to talk farther with you
+over the arrangement which has been already mentioned."
+
+"What arrangement is that?" asked Sandow, becoming suddenly attentive.
+
+Frida cast a startled and questioning look at Gustave, and replied with
+some uncertainty--
+
+"Mrs. Henderson's companion is leaving, and the situation has been
+offered to me. I had better"--
+
+"You will not accept it," interrupted Sandow with decision. Vexation
+was audible in his voice. "Why this haste? There must be other and
+better places to be found."
+
+"The banker's family is one of the first in the town," remarked
+Gustave.
+
+"And Mrs. Henderson one of the most insupportable women, who torments
+her entire household with her nerves and whims, and her companion is a
+perfect victim to them. No, Miss Frida, give up the idea. I will on no
+account agree to your taking this situation."
+
+An almost imperceptible but triumphant smile played round Gustave's
+lips.
+
+Frida stood speechless, her eyes on the ground; all the old awkwardness
+seemed to have returned with these words.
+
+Sandow misunderstood her silence. He looked searchingly at her, and
+then continued more slowly--
+
+"Of course I do not wish to control your wishes. If you want to leave
+us"--
+
+"No! no!" cried Frida, so passionately that Gustave was obliged to make
+a warning sign to her, to remind her of the necessity of self-control.
+
+She quickly collected herself, and said with a trembling voice--
+
+"I am so much afraid of being tiresome to Miss Clifford."
+
+"That is a foolish idea," said Sandow reprovingly. "Tiresome to us! My
+niece will soon convince you of the contrary. She will make you a
+better offer than Mrs. Henderson's. Jessie is far too much alone, and
+needs a companion; it is not good for a young girl to be quite without
+one of her own sex. Will you be this companion, Frida? Will you stay
+altogether with us?"
+
+The girl raised her eyes to him; they were wet with tears, and there
+was something in them which looked like a prayer for forgiveness.
+
+"If you agree to it, Mr. Sandow, I will gratefully accept Miss
+Clifford's kindness, but only if you wish me to remain."
+
+Over Sandow's face flashed a smile, slight, but it brightened like a
+ray of sunshine the dark, stern features.
+
+"Am I, then, such a dreaded power in the house? Jessie has, then,
+already spoken of this project, and you feared my refusal. No, no,
+child! My niece is perfectly free to do as she pleases, and I will
+immediately talk the thing over with her, and settle it once for all.
+Mrs. Henderson shall learn to-morrow morning that she must look for
+another companion."
+
+He rose, and waving her a slight, but friendly greeting, left the
+arbour.
+
+Scarcely was he out of hearing when Gustave approached the girl.
+
+"He is afraid that the Hendersons will kidnap you from him, and hastens
+to make sure of you!" said he triumphantly. "Why do you look so
+terrified? Do you think I shall hand you over to Mrs. Henderson, who
+to-day certainly gave me the message to you, but who really deserves
+the character my brother has given her. I was obliged to learn how he
+would look on the idea of your leaving. He was quite beside himself
+about it. Bravo, child! You have managed your affairs capitally, and
+now, instead of the censure I first heaped upon you, must declare that
+I am thoroughly satisfied with you."
+
+Frida paid no attention to the eulogy. Her eyes followed Sandow, who
+was just disappearing behind the shrubbery. Now she turned and said--
+
+"I can deceive him no longer. As long as he was hard and cold I might
+have done it; now, the falsehood crushes me to the earth!"
+
+"Cast the whole responsibility on me," said Gustave encouragingly. "I
+have placed you in this position, have woven the 'intrigue,' as Miss
+Clifford so flatteringly expresses it; I will also bear the
+responsibility when the moment for explanation comes. But now the
+watchword is 'forward!' and we must not fail for a moment. When we are
+so near our aim, we must persevere. Think of that, and promise me that
+you will endure to the end."
+
+Frida drooped her head; she did not refuse, but neither did she give
+the required promise.
+
+Gustave continued in a serious tone--
+
+"Jessie, too, urges me to a declaration, and, I see, cannot comprehend
+my hesitation. She does not understand the circumstances, but believes
+that you are a stranger to her guardian, who has won his affection, and
+to whom he would gladly open his arms. But we"--here he seized Frida's
+hand, and grasped it firmly in his own--"we know better, my poor child!
+We know that you have to struggle with a gloomy hatred which has
+already poisoned his life, and has rooted itself so firmly in that life
+that a few kind words cannot banish it. I struggled for your rights
+when my brother left Europe, have tried again and again, and have thus
+learnt how deeply grafted in him is this miserable idea. You must
+become still more to him if it is entirely to be torn from him. Can you
+think that without the most urgent necessity I would lay such a yoke
+upon you?"
+
+"Oh, no, certainly not! I will obey you in everything, only it is so
+hard to lie."
+
+"Not to me!" declared Gustave. "I would never have believed that the
+Jesuitical principle, 'the end justifies the means,' could have been
+such a perfect antidote to all the pricks of conscience. I lie with a
+kind of peace of mind, or rather with a conscious sublimity. But you
+need not take a pattern by me. It is by no means necessary that a child
+like you should have attained such a height of objectivity. On the
+contrary, falsehood must and should be difficult to you, and it gives
+me the greatest satisfaction to know that such is the case."
+
+"But Jessie," said Frida, "may I not at least take her into our
+confidence? She has been so kind, so affectionate to me, a stranger,
+has opened her arms as if to a sister"--
+
+"To get rid of me!" interrupted Gustave. "Yes, that is why she received
+you with open arms. In order to escape my wooing she would have
+deceived the very old gentleman himself, if he would have delivered her
+from the unwelcome suitor. No, no, Jessie is out of the question. It is
+my special delight to be despised by her, and I must enjoy it a little
+while longer."
+
+"Because the whole thing is only play to you," said Frida
+reproachfully, "but she suffers from it."
+
+"Who? Jessie? Not at all. She is in the highest degree shocked at my
+wickedness, and I must give myself the one little satisfaction of
+leaving her still this sentiment."
+
+"You are mistaken; it gives her bitter pain to be obliged to judge you
+so. I know how she has wept over it."
+
+Gustave sprang up as if electrified.
+
+"Is that true? Have you really seen it? She has wept?"
+
+Frida looked with unmeasured surprise at his beaming face.
+
+"And you are glad of it. Can you really blame her if she has a mistaken
+opinion of you when you have caused that mistake? Can you be so
+revengeful as to torment her for it?"
+
+"Oh! the wisdom of sixteen years!" cried Gustave, bursting into
+irrepressible laughter. "You will defend your friend against me, will
+you?--against me? You are indeed very wise for your years, my little
+Frida, but of such things you understand nothing, and, indeed, it is
+not necessary. You can still wait a couple of years. But now tell me
+all about it! When did Jessie weep? What did she cry for? How do you
+know that the tears concerned me? Tell me, tell me, or I shall die of
+impatience!"
+
+His face indeed betrayed the highest excitement, and he seemed actually
+to devour the words from the girl's lips. Frida seemed certainly to
+know nothing of such things, for she looked astonished to the last
+degree, but yielded at last to his urgency.
+
+"Jessie asked me seriously a short time ago if I would really entrust
+my whole future to such an egoist as you. I defended you, awkwardly
+enough, as I dared not betray you, and was obliged to submit to all the
+reproaches heaped on you."
+
+"And then?" asked Gustave breathlessly, "and then?"
+
+"Then, in the midst of the conversation, Jessie suddenly burst into
+tears, and cried--'You are blind, Frida; you persist in your blindness,
+and yet I have only your happiness in view! You don't know what
+dreadful pain it gives me to have to place this man in such a light
+before you, or what I would give if he stood as pure and high in my
+eyes as in yours!' And then she rushed away and locked herself in her
+room. But I know that she cried for hours."
+
+"That is incomparable, heavenly news!" cried Gustave, in fullest
+delight. "Child, you do not know how cleverly you have observed. Come,
+I must give you a kiss for it!"
+
+And with that he seized the girl in his arms and kissed her heartily on
+both cheeks.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+A shadow fell on the entrance of the arbour--there stood Sandow, who
+had returned to fetch his forgotten pocket-book, and thus became a
+witness of the scene.
+
+For a moment he stood speechless and motionless, then he approached and
+cried, with the greatest indignation--
+
+"Gustave!--Miss Palm!"
+
+The girl started violently, even Gustave turned pale as he released
+her. The catastrophe which at any price he would yet delay, had burst,
+he saw that at a glance; now he must stand firm.
+
+"What is all this?" asked Sandow, measuring his brother with blazing
+eyes. "How dare you treat thus a young girl under the shelter of my
+house, and you, Miss Palm, how could you permit such conduct? It could
+not be agreeable to you? And yet there seems already a thorough
+understanding!"
+
+Frida made no attempt to reply to the bitter reproaches heaped upon
+her. She looked at Gustave as if she expected him to defend her. He had
+already collected himself, and said impressively to his brother--
+
+"Listen to me, you are in error, and I will explain all to you."
+
+"It needs no explanation," interrupted Sandow. "I have seen what you
+have been guilty of, and you will not try to deny the evidence of my
+own eyes. I always thought you frivolous, but not so dishonourable, but
+that you have, almost under the eyes of Jessie, your promised bride"--
+
+"Frank, stop there!" cried Gustave, with such determination that
+Sandow, although trembling with rage, was silent. "I cannot allow this,
+my self-sacrifice will not go so far as that. Frida, come to me. You
+see that we must speak. He must learn the truth."
+
+Frida obeyed. She came to his side, and he laid his arm protectingly
+round her. Sandow looked bewildered from one to the other. The affair
+was unintelligible to him, he had clearly no presentiment of the truth.
+
+"You wrong me by your accusations," said Gustave, "and you wrong Frida
+too. If I kissed her I had a right to do so. She has been my charge
+from her earliest youth. The poor forsaken child was neglected by
+everyone who ought to have protected and sheltered her. I was the only
+one who recognised the right of kindred. I have used that right, and
+can support my actions by it."
+
+It was astonishing how deeply earnest the voice of the irrepressible
+jester had become. At the first words a terrible presentiment seemed to
+seize Sandow. Every tinge of colour left his face, he became paler and
+paler, and with his eyes fixed on Frida, he repeated in a tuneless and
+mechanical voice--
+
+"Your right of kindred? What--what do you mean?"
+
+Gustave raised the head of the girl, which leant on his shoulder, and
+turned the face full towards his brother.
+
+"If you have not yet guessed, then read it in this face, perhaps it
+will now be clear to you. What likeness is it that you have remembered
+there. I have certainly deceived you, been forced to deceive you since
+you thrust every possibility of an understanding from you. Then I
+seized the only means, and brought Frida to you. I thought you would by
+degrees learn to comprehend the feeling which warmed your half-frozen
+heart, I thought it must at last dawn upon you, that the stranger who
+attracted you so powerfully had a right to your love. That is now
+impossible, the discovery has come too suddenly and unexpectedly, but
+look at those features, they are your own. For long years you have
+suffered under a dark and gloomy illusion, and have punished a
+guiltless child for the guilt of the mother. You awake at last and open
+your arms to her--to your own, your neglected child."
+
+A long oppressive silence followed these words. Sandow staggered, and
+for a moment it seemed as if he would give way altogether, but he stood
+upright. His face worked terribly, and his breast rose and fell quickly
+with the gasping breath, but he spoke no word.
+
+"Come, Frida!" said Gustave gently, "come to your father, you see he
+waits for you."
+
+He drew her forwards and would have led her to her father, but he had
+now regained his power of speech. He made a movement as if to thrust
+her from him, and hoarse and roughly cried--
+
+"Back! So easy a victory you need not expect. Now I see through the
+whole comedy."
+
+"Comedy!" repeated Gustave, deeply hurt. "Frank, in such a moment can
+you speak thus."
+
+"And what else is it?" broke out Sandow. "What else do you call that
+miserable jugglery which you have carried on behind by back? So, for
+weeks past I have been surrounded in my own house, with lies and
+deceit. And even Jessie has joined you; without her help it would have
+been impossible. All have conspired against me. You," he turned to
+Frida as if he would pour all his rage and scorn upon her devoted head,
+but he encountered the girl's eyes, and the words died on his lips.
+
+He was silent for some moments, and then continued with the bitterest
+contempt--
+
+"No doubt they described to you in very enticing colours the benefit of
+having a father from whom you might inherit wealth, and who could give
+you a brilliant position in life. That is why you have stolen into my
+house with lies. But what I swore when I left Europe that I stand by. I
+have no child, will have none, were the law ten times to adjudge me
+one. Go back over the sea to whence you came. I will not be the victim
+of deceit."
+
+"That is what I feared," said Gustave, half aloud. "Frida," he stepped
+quickly to her, "now you must rouse the feelings of a father. You see
+he will not listen to me; to you he must, and will listen. Speak, then,
+at all events open your lips, do you not feel what hangs on this
+moment?"
+
+But Frida spoke not, and did not open her lips, which were convulsively
+pressed together. She was deadly pale, and in her face was the same
+expression of hard, settled obstinacy which disfigured her father's
+countenance.
+
+"Let me alone, Uncle Gustave," she replied, "I cannot entreat now, and
+if my life depended on it, I could not. I will only tell my father I am
+innocent of the 'deceit' with which he reproaches me."
+
+The delicate form was suddenly drawn up to its full height, the dark
+eyes blazed, and the deeply injured feelings burst forth, passionately
+overflowing all bounds, like a stream which can no longer be
+controlled.
+
+"You need not repulse me so harshly, I should have gone in the moment
+when it became clear to me that the one thing I sought here--my
+father's heart--was denied me. I have never known a parent's love. My
+mother was estranged from me, of my father I only knew that he lived on
+this side the Atlantic, and had cast me off because he hated my mother.
+I came against my will, because I neither knew nor loved you. I only
+feared you. I came because my uncle said that you were lonely and
+embittered, and in spite of your wealth had no happiness in life; that
+you needed love, and that I alone could give it to you. By those means
+he forced me to follow him, in spite of my opposition, and by those
+means has he ever prevented me when I begged to return home. But now he
+will not wish to detain me, and if he did, I would tear myself away.
+Keep your wealth, father, that which you think has brought me to you.
+It has brought no blessing to you; I knew it long ago, and hear it
+again in your words. If you were poor and desolate I would try to love
+you, now I cannot. I will leave you within the hour!"
+
+The unmeasured violence with which these words were spoken, or rather
+with which they rushed from Frida's lips had something terrible in it,
+but it also betrayed something which produced a more powerful effect
+than all the prayers and petitions could have done--the resemblance
+between the father and the daughter.
+
+In the ordinary course of life the resemblance between the girl of
+sixteen and the already grey-haired man might have disappeared, or only
+have been remarkable occasionally; here, in the moment of highest
+excitement, it found such overwhelming, such convincing expression,
+that every doubt vanished on the spot.
+
+Sandow must have seen it whether he would or not. Those were his eyes,
+which flamed before him, that was his voice which rang in his ears,
+that was his own dark, unbending obstinacy which now turned against
+himself. Trait by trait he saw himself reproduced in his daughter. The
+voice of blood and nature spoke so loud and convincingly that even the
+long treasured illusion of the father began to yield.
+
+Frida turned to her uncle.
+
+"In an hour I shall be ready to start! Forgive me, Uncle Gustave, that
+I have so badly carried out all your teaching, that I have rendered
+useless all your self-sacrifice, but I cannot do otherwise!"
+
+She threw herself wildly on his breast, but only for a moment, then she
+tore herself away, fled past her father, and rushed like a hunted thing
+through the garden towards the house.
+
+As Sandow saw his daughter in his brother's arms, he made a movement as
+if to tear her away, but his hand fell powerless by his side, and he
+sank as if crushed upon a seat, and buried his face in his hands.
+
+Gustave, on his side, made no attempt to detain his niece. He stood
+quietly there with folded arms and watched his brother. At last he
+asked--
+
+"Do you believe it now?"
+
+Sandow raised himself; he tried to reply, but the words failed him, and
+no sound came from his lips.
+
+"I thought this encounter must have convinced you," continued Gustave.
+"The likeness is really startling. You are reflected in your child as
+in a mirror. Frank, if you do not believe this testimony I have indeed
+lost all hope."
+
+Sandow passed his hand over his brow, bedewed with cold sweat, and
+looked towards the house, where Frida had long since vanished.
+
+"Call her back!" said he, hoarsely.
+
+"That would be labour in vain, she would not listen to me. Would you
+return if you had been so driven away? Frida is her father's daughter,
+she will not approach you again--you must fetch her yourself."
+
+Again silence, but this only lasted for a minute, then Sandow rose,
+slowly and hesitatingly, but he rose. Gustave laid his hand upon his
+arm.
+
+"One word, Frank, before you go. Frida knows of the past only what she
+was compelled to know, not one syllable more. She does not dream _why_
+you have driven her away, nor what fearful suspicion has kept her all
+these years from her father's heart. I could not bring myself to reveal
+that to the child. She believes that you hated her mother because she
+was unhappy in her marriage with you, left you and married another man,
+and that this hatred has descended upon her. This reason satisfied her,
+she asked for no other, so let it remain. I think you will understand
+that I could not let your daughter look into the depth of your domestic
+misery, and concealed the worst from her. If you do not mention it she
+need never learn it."
+
+"I--thank you!"
+
+The elder brother seized the hand of the younger, the latter returned
+the pressure heartily and firmly. Then Sandow turned and went rapidly
+away.
+
+"He is going to her," said Gustave, with a sigh of relief. "God be
+thanked; now they can arrange the rest together."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+Frida had fled to her own room in the upper floor of the villa. Another
+might have given way to tears, or have poured out her heart to the
+sympathizing Jessie; this girl did neither; but with restless haste
+made the preparations for her journey.
+
+The harsh repulse of her father, which burnt like fire into her soul,
+left her only one thought. Away out of this house from which he wished
+to drive her, away as quick as possible.
+
+Frida had drawn out her travelling trunk, which still stood in the
+corner of the apartment, and collected her things together. She did it
+silently, tearlessly, but with a stormy haste, as if she would escape
+some misfortune. She knelt before the open box and was in the act of
+laying her dresses in it, when a step sounded outside. It must be her
+uncle who was looking for her, she knew that he would come to her, and
+would beg him to take her to an hotel. There they could arrange about
+her return home. She would be docile, obedient in everything, only he
+must not attempt to keep her longer here. The steps came nearer, the
+door opened, and on the threshold stood--her father!
+
+Frida trembled violently, the shawl which she held in her hand fell to
+the ground, and she stood as if rooted to the spot.
+
+Sandow entered and shut the door; he looked at the open box and the
+things scattered around.
+
+"You are going?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Question and answer were alike short and abrupt. It seemed as if the
+gulf between father and daughter would again open wide. Sandow was
+silent for a few moments, he visibly struggled with himself; at last he
+said--
+
+"Come to me, Frida!"
+
+She rose slowly, stood a moment as if undecided, and then approached
+slowly, till she stood close before her father. He put his arm round
+her, and with the other hand raised her head. Bending over her he
+examined line by line, feature by feature, and his eyes seemed
+literally to pierce into her countenance. The old suspicion arose once
+more, and for the last time, but it vanished by degrees, as the father
+saw his own features reproduced in his child.
+
+A deep, deep sigh burst from Sandow's breast, and the half anxiously
+seeking, half threatening look, melted into tears, which fell hot and
+heavy on Frida's brow.
+
+"Just now I gave you great pain," said he, "but do you think it was
+easy to me to drive from me the one thing that could give me joy.
+Gustave is right; it has been a terrible delusion, may it be forgotten
+for ever. My child," his voice broke in deepest emotion, "will you love
+your father?"
+
+A joyful cry burst from the daughter's lips. At this tone, the first
+which seemed really to come from the heart, vanished the bitterness of
+the last hour, vanished also the recollection of the long years of
+separation and estrangement.
+
+Frida threw both arms round her father's neck, and as he pressed her
+with a burst of tenderness to his breast, they both felt that the
+gloomy shadow which had so long separated them, had vanished for ever!
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+
+
+Meanwhile Gustave had also returned slowly to the house. As he entered
+the drawing-room, Jessie came to him full of uneasiness.
+
+"Mr. Sandow, pray, pray tell me what has happened. Ten minutes ago
+Frida rushed into my room, threw her arms round my neck, and wished me
+good-bye. She seemed quite beside herself, and declared that she must
+go, she could not stay another hour, would answer no questions, but
+referred me to you for all explanations. What has happened?"
+
+Gustave shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"What I feared, if the discovery could not be postponed. An accident
+betrayed our secret to my brother, and we were obliged to confess the
+truth. His auger at the deception burst forth with great violence, and
+was poured unsparingly upon us both. Frida could not support this, she
+declared she would go at once, and now is, most probably, making the
+necessary preparations for her journey."
+
+"And you are not with her!" cried Jessie. "You have not protected and
+supported her! Can you leave her alone at such a moment? Go to her!"
+
+"I should only be in the way," declared Gustave, with a composure which
+appeared to Miss Clifford as the height of selfishness. "What remains
+to be done Frida must fight out alone. I may, at last, be allowed to
+think of myself."
+
+His eyes, which rested on Jessie's face, beamed again as when Frida had
+made a certain revelation to him. Lost in this gaze, he quite forgot
+that his words must give rise to fresh misunderstanding, and this
+indeed happened in fullest measure.
+
+"All this while you have only thought too much of yourself!" replied
+Jessie, her excitement rising, "but if there is one spark of love in
+your breast, you must feel that your place is at the side of your
+betrothed bride."
+
+Gustave smiled, and stepped close to the indignant girl, while he said
+impressively--
+
+"Frida is not, and has never been, betrothed to me."
+
+"Not betrothed to you?"
+
+"No; if you remember, it was expressly as my _protegee_ I introduced
+her. It was you, Miss Clifford, who took the other connection for
+granted, and I left you in your error. But now, when I have ceased to
+play the part of protector, I may acknowledge to you that my
+inclinations were directed to quite another quarter."
+
+He bent over her hand, and pressed a passionate kiss upon it, which
+amply explained his words, but the game which he had so boldly carried
+on was now to be revenged on him. He had too long played the part of
+the heartless egoist, and must now do penance.
+
+Jessie snatched her hand away with the greatest indignation.
+
+"Mr. Sandow, you are going too far! So now, when my guardian repulses
+Frida, when you see the impossibility of gaining his consent, you dare
+to approach me! You even venture to deny your bride before me, and to
+give the whole thing out as a farce. That is really too much!"
+
+"But Miss Clifford--for heaven's sake!" cried Gustave, now seriously
+disturbed.
+
+She would not allow him to speak, but continued, as if beside herself--
+
+"I knew long ago, when you laid such stress upon the word _protegee_,
+that you were leaving a way of escape open. If Frida and fortune could
+both be won, well and good; if only fortune, Frida must go. There would
+still remain the heiress, who in the first place was intended for you,
+and this heiress you would secure while the forsaken, deceived girl was
+still under our roof. I have already experienced bitter disappointment
+with respect to your character, but such disgraceful disregard of truth
+and good faith I had not expected, even from you!"
+
+A flood of tears choked her voice. Gustave tried prayers, entreaties,
+explanations; all were in vain. She hurried into the adjoining room,
+and when he tried to follow her she drew the bolt inside. Directly
+after he heard her leave that room also by another door, so that his
+words could no longer reach her. Left thus in the lurch, Gustave began
+to give vent to his anger.
+
+"This is really too bad! This is what I have gained by sacrificing
+myself to the interests of others! My brother bursts upon me raging and
+storming because I give a caress to my own niece, and now I am treated
+like a criminal because I am too indifferent to her. Really, I ought to
+have taken Jessie into our confidence. This comes of too great a supply
+of high spirits. The thing amused me, and she--now she cries like one
+in the depths of despair. Now perhaps I may wait till tomorrow without
+her reappearing, and the misunderstanding should be brought to an end
+at once."
+
+Despairingly he stamped with his foot, when suddenly a voice behind him
+said--
+
+"I beg pardon--but I was directed here."
+
+Gustave started and looked round. At the principal entrance of the
+drawing-room stood a stranger, a little man with a round face, who,
+bowing politely, said--
+
+"Have I the honour of addressing the head of the house of Clifford?" He
+looked rather nervous, for Gustave's violent pantomime had not escaped
+him. "I have been to the office, and was there told that Mr. Sandow had
+already left. As my business is very urgent, I have been obliged to
+follow him out here."
+
+"My brother is not visible," said Gustave irritably, for this
+interruption was in the highest degree unwelcome at such a moment. "He
+has important business in hand, and cannot be disturbed."
+
+At the word "brother" the little gentleman bowed still more profoundly,
+and approaching with a confidential air, said--
+
+"Mr. Gustave Sandow! the great German journalist! I am deeply rejoiced
+that fortune has permitted me to make the acquaintance of such a
+celebrity, a celebrity whose value is thoroughly appreciated by our
+firm."
+
+"What do you want?" asked Gustave, with a look which clearly expressed
+a burning desire to show the admirer of his greatness to the door.
+
+"I am an agent of Jenkins and Co.," explained the stranger, with an air
+of great self-satisfaction. "I arrived here today with a number of
+emigrants, and found myself obliged to call upon our honoured
+correspondent here. Since Mr. Sandow cannot be disturbed, perhaps I may
+make my statement to you."
+
+Now Gustave's sorely tried patience was at an end. At a moment of such
+anxiety to receive an agent of Jenkins and Co. was beyond his power. He
+turned with great want of politeness to the bearer of the hated name--
+
+"I can receive no communications intended for my brother. Bring your
+news to-morrow to the counting-house. I would"--here he suddenly
+dropped the English in which he had spoken to the American, and
+relieved his mind with a few strong German curses. "I wish the devil
+would take Jenkins and Co. with all their agents to their accursed
+place in the West, that the consequences of their philanthropical
+speculation might fall on their own heads."
+
+With this he quitted the room by another door, leaving the astonished
+agent dumb with horror. For a few minutes he looked at the door by
+which Gustave had vanished with a bewildered mien. He had not
+understood the words of the German objurgations, but so much was clear
+to him that the "great German journalist" had not expressed very
+benevolent wishes with regard to himself and his Company. What should
+he do? The elder Mr. Sandow invisible, and the younger--
+
+The little gentleman shook his head thoughtfully, and said to himself--
+
+"Remarkable people, these German journalists! They are so nervous, so
+excited, one might almost say raving mad. When one pays them a
+compliment they answer by insult. Our gentlemen of the press are much
+more polite when people talk of their fame."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+Jessie had locked herself in her own room, and there gave full course
+to her tears. Never in her life had she felt so profoundly unhappy, so
+despairing, as at this hour. Now she felt how her whole heart clung to
+this man, whom cost what it might she would drive from her.
+
+Long ago, while he still lived in Germany, she had treasured a secret
+interest in her guardian's brother. She did not know him, but his pen
+wove an invisible bond between them. With what glowing eagerness had
+she read his articles; with what enthusiasm had she followed the
+flights of his idealism. She felt a community of ideas between them on
+all points of thought and sentiment, and by degrees he became a sort of
+ideal to her. And now the idealist had come--to falsify his whole past
+by yielding himself to his brother's sordid speculations. Then he
+concealed the best feelings of his heart from a cowardly fear of losing
+that brother's wealth; he heaped intrigue on intrigue to secure the
+coveted riches, then denied his bride rather than risk the fortune, and
+again courted the heiress. The most miserable selfishness, the most
+paltry calculations, were the mainsprings of his actions. Jessie hated
+and despised him with all her soul, but that she was forced to do so,
+that it was precisely this man whom she must despise, tore her very
+heart.
+
+She had thrown herself on her couch, and buried her face in the
+cushions, smothering there her sobs, when suddenly she heard her name
+called, and springing up, she was startled to see Gustave Sandow
+standing in the middle of the room. She passionately cried--
+
+"Mr. Sandow, how do you come here? I thought"--
+
+"Yes, you bolted the drawing-room door," interrupted Gustave, "and you
+ordered your maid to admit no one, but in spite of bolts and lady's
+maid I am here. I must speak to you; it is necessary for your sake as
+well as mine."
+
+"But I will not listen!" cried Jessie, with a vain attempt at
+self-control.
+
+"But I will be heard!" replied Gustave. "At first I thought of sending
+Frida as a mediator, but soon gave up the idea. It would have taken too
+long. She is still with her father."
+
+"With whom?"
+
+"With her father--my brother!" Jessie stood as if petrified. The
+revelation was so sudden that she could not at first realize it, till
+Gustave said--
+
+"May I now justify myself?"
+
+Then through her soul flashed hope and happiness. She allowed him to
+take her hand and to lead her to the sofa, and even to place himself
+beside her.
+
+"I have a confession to make to you, Miss Clifford," he began, "and to
+make all clear to you I must go far back into my brother's past life.
+By-and-bye, I may do it at greater length, but now I will only tell you
+enough to justify myself."
+
+He detained her hand in his, and Jessie left it unresistingly there.
+She began to believe in the possibility of justification.
+
+"My brother's domestic life was one of bitter experience. An apparently
+happy wedded life ended in a terrible discovery. He found himself
+betrayed by his wife and his dearest friend, and the circumstances of
+the discovery were such that with his domestic happiness fell also his
+outward prosperity. He neither would nor could remain longer at home,
+and went to America, where your parents received him. But in Germany he
+had left his daughter, his only child, who at that time was almost an
+infant. In his hatred, his bitterness against all, he would not
+acknowledge the child; it remained with the mother, who after the
+necessary divorce had married that man."
+
+He paused a moment. Jessie listened in breathless anticipation;
+over her pale, tear-stained face crept a slight flush, as Gustave
+continued--
+
+"I was then at the university, and had no means of supporting Frida,
+and all my representations in her behalf were fruitless. But I have
+never forsaken my little niece. The poor child had a comfortless youth
+in that family where her very presence was a rock of offence. Endured
+against his will by her step-father, treated by her own mother with
+indifference, nay, almost with aversion, she stood a stranger among her
+step-brothers and sisters, and with every year more keenly felt her
+loneliness. As soon as my means permitted, I assumed the rights of an
+uncle, which were certainly readily granted me, and extricated my niece
+from these surroundings. I placed her at school, where she remained
+till her mother's death. That death broke the bond which caused
+constant bitterness to my brother, and now I determined to come to
+America and fight for her rights, cost what it might."
+
+"And that was your reason for coming to America?" said Jessie, timidly.
+
+"That alone! I had already made an attempt by letter, but was most
+harshly repulsed by Frank. He threatened to break off all
+correspondence with me if I ever touched on the subject again. So then
+I placed all my hopes on the effect of Frida's own presence, but it at
+first seemed impossible to carry out this plan. I could not allow a
+young girl like that to cross the sea alone, and if she had appeared in
+my company my brother would have instantly had his suspicions roused.
+Then the death of your father, Miss Clifford, obliged him to think of a
+new partner, and his thoughts turned to me. Under ordinary
+circumstances the invitation to cast overboard my fatherland, my
+calling, and my independence, yes, the very heart and soul of my former
+life, for the sake of material interests, would have met with the most
+decided refusal; now it seemed like a sign from heaven itself. I
+apparently yielded, and started with Frida. She remained in New York
+while I viewed the field of action, and then introduced her under an
+assumed name into her father's house. You know what followed. The
+discovery has cost a last but severe struggle. There was a scene, which
+threatened to destroy all, but at last the father's heart awoke in my
+brother's bosom, and now he is reconciled with his child!"
+
+Jessie sat with eyes cast down and glowing cheeks while she listened to
+this recital, which took one thorn after another from her breast. It
+seemed to her as if she herself were released from a gloomy oppression,
+now that the veil which so long had covered the "egoist" had fallen.
+
+"Yes, Miss Clifford, now it is all up with the inheritance," said
+Gustave mischievously. "It was indeed offered to me, and I have had a
+hard fight for it, but only in the interest of the rightful heiress.
+Unfortunately, I must also resign the honour of becoming a partner in
+the house of Clifford. The editor and staff of the _K--sche Zeitung_
+have bound me by a solemn oath as soon as my leave of absence is at an
+end; and in the long run indeed 'keeping accounts' does not appeal
+very strongly to me. I shall take up my old colours again, which,
+by-the-bye, I have not so shamefully deserted as you supposed. Do you
+still find my presence at the office desk so contemptible an action?"
+
+Jessie looked at him, ashamed, confused, yet with a feeling of intense
+happiness--
+
+"I have wronged you, Mr. Sandow; it was certainly your own fault,
+but--I beg your pardon?"
+
+She could not offer him her hand, for he had never released it, but he
+pressed a kiss upon it which this time was quite patiently endured.
+
+"I have for weeks past rejoiced at the thought of this explanation,"
+said he, laughing. "Do you think I would have endured my brother's
+arbitrary manner and your contempt even for an hour, had I not been
+certain of your petition at the end?"
+
+"And Frida is really only your adopted child?" asked Jessie, with a
+throbbing heart, which could not be controlled. "You do not love her?"
+
+"Frida is my dear niece, and I am her venerated uncle, with that our
+mutual relation is exhausted. Now that she has found her father, I am
+become superfluous as an object of respect. But now that we are on the
+subject of love, Jessie, I have one question to put to you."
+
+The question seemed to be guessed, for Jessie's face was bathed in
+blushes. She dared not look up, but that was also unnecessary, for
+Gustave was already at her feet, so she was compelled to look down at
+him, as he, with warmest devotion, whispered--
+
+"My dearest, my beloved Jessie, it is now my turn to beg your pardon. I
+have intrigued, I have lied even to you, that cannot be denied, but I
+have also suffered for it, for you have compelled me to hear some
+bitter strictures. But one thing has remained real and true in me since
+our first meeting--the feeling which awoke in me when I first saw those
+blue eyes! So you must be gracious to me!"
+
+Jessie seemed certainly inclined to grace, that the blue eyes said
+before the lips could express it. He sprang up full of passionate joy,
+and the pardon was confirmed in every point, indeed, no necessary
+formalities were omitted.
+
+Half an hour later the two entered Frida's room, where Sandow still sat
+with his daughter. Gustave had drawn Jessie's hand within his arm, and
+now solemnly led her to his brother.
+
+"Frank," said he, "in your inconsiderate plan was one sensible
+idea--indeed a very sensible one--yes, my little Frida, do not make
+such astonished eyes at your uncle and your future aunt--these are
+things which you do not understand; with our mutual penetration we have
+discovered that one sensible idea, and now introduce ourselves to you
+as an engaged couple."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+It was the next morning. After breakfast the two brothers had withdrawn
+to the study of the elder one, and were alone there. Sandow sat at the
+writing-table; on his countenance lay an expression which for long
+years had never dwelt there, a shimmer of the happiness of former days,
+but his brow was still clouded as he spoke to his brother, who leant
+against the window opposite to him.
+
+"Then you will really forsake me and carry Jessie off to Germany? I
+hoped that when Clifford's daughter should belong to you, you would
+also become his successor in business, and thus fulfil his dearest
+wish. You need not on that account give up your pen altogether, the
+real weight of business will rest as before on my shoulders. Our press
+is mightier and more influential than yours, here you would find a
+freer and wider field than in our native land. Consider it!"
+
+"It requires no consideration," said Gustave with decision. "I can only
+give my whole interest and energy to one occupation. Merchant and
+_litterateur_; that won't do! Were the intellectual horizon here ten
+times as wide, every chord of my heart is bound to my home, I can only
+there work and create. And then we should never do as partners. For a
+few weeks I could wear the mask of a subordinate and be silent to all,
+for on Frida's account I wished to prevent a breach. But now Frank! I
+must tell you plainly that your business practice, your whole system,
+would render it impossible for us ever to get on together. It led you
+to a close union with Jenkins--in that lies your condemnation."
+
+Sandow did not spring up, as at such a declaration he would certainly
+have done before, but his brow took a deeper shade.
+
+"You look at things from one point of view and I from another. Your
+calling gives you perfect liberty in act and thought, I stand amidst
+all kinds of antagonistic interest, and cannot always choose my means.
+I wish"--he paused a moment, and then overcoming himself continued--"I
+wish I had not entered on this partnership with Jenkins. But it has
+happened, and I cannot extricate myself."
+
+"Can you really not? Is there no way out of it?"
+
+"I have told you that hundreds of thousands are invested in this
+affair, and run the risk of losing all if it does not succeed, or if I
+withdraw from it."
+
+"But you must withdraw whatever the loss may be!"
+
+Sandow looked at him as if he did not believe his ears.
+
+"At the risk of such a loss? Are you serious? Have you any idea of what
+such a sum means? I have done what I could, I have made the attempt to
+separate from Jenkins, to my injury--for he has become more obstinate
+in consequence. In his last letter he asked with ill-concealed
+suspicion, if I really required my money, since I appeared so anxious
+to withdraw my capital. He seems to suspect losses on my side, perhaps
+doubts my credit, and for a merchant that is the most dangerous thing
+that can happen. I must enter upon the thing with redoubled energy if I
+would repair such an imprudence."
+
+"Yesterday I gave you your child," said Gustave earnestly, "and I
+believe that in her you have won more than you will lose here. For
+Frida's sake I hoped you would withdraw from a speculation which
+hinders you from meeting your daughter's eyes."
+
+Sandow turned quickly away, but his voice had the old harsh sound as he
+replied--
+
+"Just for Frida's sake! Shall I impoverish my newly-found child? Shall
+I rob her of the half of her fortune?"
+
+"She will have enough in the other half, and I do not believe that the
+whole will bring a blessing, when it is retained at such a price."
+
+"Silence! You understand nothing about it. A retreat at any risk, such
+as you suggest is an impossibility, so not another word on the subject!
+Naturally, I release you from your promise, for, knowing you as I do
+now, I am sure that you have never written the articles."
+
+"The first is long since ready," replied Gustave coldly. "It will
+certainly be also the last, one such will suffice. I intended showing
+you the MSS. to-day. Here it is."
+
+He drew some pages of writing from his pocket, and offered them to his
+brother, who took them hesitatingly, and looked questioning and
+doubtfully at him.
+
+"Read," said Gustave simply.
+
+ Sandow began to read, at first slowly, but with, ever-increasing
+haste. He turned over the leaves with a trembling hand, and glanced
+over them. His face grew darker, and breaking off in the midst he threw
+the manuscript violently on the table.
+
+"Are you out of your mind! You have written, you will publish that! It
+is terrible what you there expose to the world!"
+
+Gustave drew himself up to his full height, and stepped up close to his
+brother.
+
+"Terrible! indeed it is! And the most terrible part is, that all these
+things are true. I have been on the spot, and can pledge my honour for
+every word that I have written there. Draw back, Frank, while there is
+yet time. This article, appearing in the _K--sche Zeitung_, repeated
+throughout the entire German press, cannot fail in its working. The
+Consulate, the Ministry will be obliged to notice it. They will take
+care that no one falls unwarned into the hands of Jenkin's and Co."
+
+"You are very proud of the wonderful effect of your pen!" cried Sandow
+beside himself. "You seem to have forgotten that I am an equal
+shareholder with Jenkins, and that when you describe the place in such
+revolting colours, every word is directed against the wealth and honour
+of your brother. You will not only ruin me by this, but represent me as
+a scoundrel in the eyes of all the world."
+
+"No. I shall not do that, for you will separate yourself altogether
+from this rascally company, and I shall add, that my brother, who had
+unwittingly become involved in this speculation, retreated from it at a
+great pecuniary sacrifice, as soon as his eyes were opened to the
+enormity of the proceeding. Declare this openly to the man, if you fear
+that merely withdrawing will be injurious to your credit. The truth,
+here too, is the best."
+
+"And you think that Jenkins would believe me, the merchant, the head of
+the house of Clifford, guilty of such an insane trick. He would simply
+believe I had lost my senses."
+
+"It is possible, for since this honourable personage has no conscience
+himself, he would not understand its existence in anyone else.
+Nevertheless, you must try every means."
+
+Sandow walked wildly up and down the room for a few minutes, at last he
+stopped and said with gasping breath--
+
+"You do not know what it is to seize a wasp's nest. In Europe you would
+at least be safe from their stings, while I must remain here open to
+all. Jenkins would never forgive me if my name were attached to any
+such revelations. He is influential enough to set against me all who
+are concerned in it, and they are counted by hundreds. You do not know
+the iron ring of interest which surrounds and binds us together. One
+hangs on the other, one supports the other. Woe to him who tears
+himself away and offers battle to his former companions. They all swear
+to destroy him. His credit is undermined, his plans crossed, he himself
+calumniated and harassed till he is ruined. Just now I could not
+support such attacks. Jessie's money will be lost to the firm, this
+speculation has weakened my own means to the last degree; should it
+fail, for me it will be the beginning of ruin. I speak as unreservedly
+to you as you have to me, and now go and publish your discovery to all
+the world!"
+
+He paused, overwhelmed with excitement; Gustave looked darkly before
+him, his brow, too, bore the marks of deep and anxious care.
+
+"I did not think that you were so surrounded and entangled on every
+side. That comes from this execrable system of business! Well then"--he
+laid his hand upon the paper--"destroy this, I will not write it again.
+I am silent when you assure me that my words will be your ruin. But the
+consequences are on your head! You must answer for every human life
+which is lost in that den of fever."
+
+"Gustave, you are killing me!" groaned Sandow sinking into a chair.
+
+The door was gently opened and the servant announced that the carriage
+which usually conveyed the two gentlemen to town was at the door.
+Gustave signed to the man to withdraw, and then bending over his
+brother said--
+
+"You cannot now come to a decision. You must be calm. Let me go alone
+to the office to-day and represent you there. You are terribly agitated
+and excited, too much came on you yesterday."
+
+Sandow made a mute sign of assent, he might well feel that he was not
+in a condition to show his ordinary calm business demeanour to his
+subordinates. But when his brother was already at the door, he suddenly
+started up,
+
+"One thing--not a word to Frida! Don't bring her into the field against
+me, or you drive me to extremities."
+
+"Be tranquil, I should not have ventured that," said Gustave with
+great emphasis. "It would estrange the scarcely won heart of your
+child--perhaps for ever. Good-bye Frank."
+
+About an hour later Frida entered her father's room, where he was still
+pacing restlessly up and down. She started when she saw him, for his
+countenance betrayed something of the struggle of the past hours. He
+tried indeed to conceal his agitation, and avoided giving a direct
+reply to the anxious inquiries of his daughter, but still she saw that
+he was devoured by feverish anxiety. The girl was still too much a
+stranger to venture on forcing his confidence by prayers and
+entreaties, but she looked with secret dread at the gloomy shadow which
+brooded over the brow, where nothing but joy and pardon should have
+been seen.
+
+Suddenly Gustave entered with Jessie; he appeared to have just returned
+from town, for he still held his hat and gloves; he had, however, been
+scarcely an hour absent.
+
+"I have brought Jessie with me," he said in his usual cheerful manner,
+"and since Frida is also here, we can hold another family council in
+your room. You are surprised to see me again so soon, Frank. I wished
+to relieve you of all business affairs to-day, but have been compelled
+to come to you for a decision. At the office I found some emigrants who
+would not be satisfied without seeing you, and as you were not coming
+to town today, I have brought them out here."
+
+"Yes, Gustave brought them out in his own carriage," said Jessie who
+had been rather astonished at seeing her future husband drive up to the
+door, with some homely peasants in the elegant equipage belonging to
+their house.
+
+"They are Germans, fellow-countrymen, indeed they are from our own
+little native place," added Gustave quickly. "They might not have been
+able to find their way here alone, so I considered it best to bring
+them."
+
+"That was quite unnecessary," said Sandow uneasily, and displeased at
+what he foresaw would be a last and decisive attack. "The thing could
+have waited till to-morrow. What have I personally to do with the
+wanderers? They can receive every information at the office. You have
+really brought them all here?"
+
+"Yes all, excepting the agent of Jenkins and Co. He was here yesterday
+with the object of speaking to you; I put him off till this morning,
+and arrived just in time to rescue these people from him; for he seemed
+resolved not to let them go till he had given them the fullest
+particulars. You will of course receive them; I promised them
+positively an interview with you."
+
+And without leaving his brother time to refuse, he opened the door of
+the adjoining room, and invited the men who were waiting there to
+enter. The two girls were about to retire when they found a business
+interview was to take place, but Gustave held Jessie's arm fast, and
+said softly but impressively to her and his niece--
+
+"Stay, both of you. I want you, but particularly Frida!"
+
+Meanwhile the strangers had entered. There were three men, robust
+country folk, with sunburnt faces and toil-hardened hands. The eldest,
+a man of middle age, appeared highly respectable in manner and dress.
+The two others were younger and looked more necessitous. They stood
+awkwardly near the door, while their leader made a few steps forward.
+
+"There is my brother," said Gustave, directing their attention to him.
+"Speak quite freely and fearlessly to him. Under the present
+circumstances, he only can give you the best advice."
+
+"God be with you, Mr. Sandow!" began the leader, with the touching
+German salutation, usual in his province, and with a strong, harsh
+provincial accent. "We are thankful to find Germans here, with whom we
+can speak an honest word. At your office where we at first sought you,
+we were ordered here and there, and were quite bewildered, till
+fortunately your brother appeared. He immediately took our part, and
+has been very rough with the agent who would not let us see you. But he
+was right then, for long ago we lost all confidence in the whole band."
+
+Sandow rose; he felt the storm approach, and cast a threatening,
+reproachful glance at the brother who had thus entangled him. But the
+merchant well knew that he must not allow the strangers to have any
+idea of his position, but must preserve his usual business air. He
+asked--
+
+"What do you want with me, and what am I to advise you upon?"
+
+The peasant looked at his two companions as if he expected them to
+speak, but as they remained silent and made energetic signs for him to
+continue, he alone replied--
+
+"We have fallen into a horrible trap, and know no way out of it. Before
+leaving Germany we were recommended to Jenkins and Company, and on
+arriving in New York were received by their agent. They promised us a
+mine of wealth, and at their office one seemed to believe that in the
+far west lay an earthly paradise. But on the way here we accidentally
+met a few Germans, who had been several years in America, and they told
+another tale. They bade us beware of this Jenkins and his western
+paradise. He was a regular cutthroat, and had already brought many to
+misery. We should all be ruined in his forests, and what all his other
+fine things might be. Then we felt stunned! The agent, who was
+travelling in another compartment, was furious when we plainly told him
+what we had heard, but as I said before, we had lost all confidence in
+him, and wished to consider the thing again before we travelled so many
+more hundred miles westward."
+
+Gustave, who stood beside Jessie, listened with apparent calm. She
+looked rather frightened; she did not know all the circumstances, but
+could easily feel that this meant more than an ordinary business
+affair.
+
+Frida, on the other hand, listened with breathless excitement to the
+words which bore such singular resemblance to those which, weeks ago,
+she had spoken to her father. But what could he have to do with this
+emigration scheme?
+
+"We were directed to your bank, Mr. Sandow," continued the man, "for
+the signing the contract and payment for the land. We heard in the
+neighbourhood that you were a German, and indeed out of our own
+province. Then I called together the others and said, 'Children, now
+there is no more difficulty; we will go to our countryman and lay the
+thing before him. He is a German, so will, no doubt, have a conscience,
+and will not send his fellow-countrymen to their destruction!'"
+
+If Sandow had not before realised to the full extent, what a sin
+his speculation was, he learnt it in this hour, and the simple,
+true-hearted words of the peasant burnt into his soul, as the bitterest
+reproaches could not have done.
+
+It was torture that he endured, but the worst was to come. Frida crept
+to his side. He did not look at her at that moment, he could not, but
+he felt the anxious, imploring look, and the trembling of the hand
+which clasped his own.
+
+"Now it is your turn to speak," said the man, turning half angrily to
+his companions, who had entirely left the management of the affair to
+him. "You, too, have wives and children, and have spent your last penny
+on the journey. Yes, Mr. Sandow, there are poor devils among us who
+have nothing but their strong arms, and can count on nothing but their
+labour. Some of us are certainly better off, and so we thought one
+could help the other in the new colony. There are about eighty of us,
+besides a dozen children, and for the poor little ones it would indeed
+be bad if things over there are as we have been told. So give us
+advice, _Herr Landsmann_! If you say to us, 'Go,' then in God's name we
+shall start early to-morrow, and hope for the best. It will be God
+Himself who has brought us to you, and we shall thank Him from the
+bottom of our hearts."
+
+Sandow leant heavily on the table which stood before him. Only by
+exerting the utmost force of will was he able to appear collected. Only
+Gustave knew what was raging in his heart, and he now decided to break
+the long and painful pause which had followed the last words.
+
+"Have no fear!" he cried. "You see my brother has himself a child, an
+only daughter, and thus he knows what the life and health of your
+little ones is to you. His advice can be implicitly followed. Now,
+Frank, what do you advise our countrymen to do?"
+
+Sandow looked at the three men, whose eyes rested anxiously, yet
+confidingly, on his face, then at his daughter, and suddenly standing
+erect, he cried--
+
+"Do not go there!"
+
+The men started back, and looked at each other, and then at the
+merchant, who had given them this strange advice.
+
+"But you are connected with this company?" cried the one, and the
+others confirmed his words. "Yes, indeed, you are one of them!"
+
+"In this affair I have been deceived myself," explained Sandow. "It is
+only lately that I have learnt exactly the nature of the land, of which
+I am certainly one of the owners, and I know that it is not suited for
+colonization. I will, therefore, make no contract with you, as I intend
+to withdraw from my obligations and give up the whole undertaking."
+
+The Germans had no suspicion what a sacrifice their countryman had made
+for them, or at what price their rescue had been bought. They looked
+quite helpless and despairing, and their leader said with startled
+manner--
+
+"This is an abominable business? We Lave made and paid for this long
+journey, and here we are in America. We cannot return, we must not
+proceed; we are betrayed and sold in a strange country. Mr. Sandow, you
+must advise us again, you mean well by us that we can see, or you would
+not deal such a blow at your own interest. Tell us what to do?"
+
+A heavy, troubled breath came from the breast of the merchant. Nothing
+was spared him to the last detail, but he had gone too far to retreat.
+
+"Go to the German Consul in this town," he replied, "and lay your case
+before him. As far as I know there is a German company in New York,
+which has also undertaken the colonization of the West, and which is
+under the special protection of our Consulate. Their possessions are
+not extremely distant from the original object of your journey, the
+route is almost the same. More particulars you will learn of the Consul
+himself; you may place implicit confidence in him, and he will assist
+you by every means in his power."
+
+The faces of the poor men cleared wonderfully at this intelligence.
+
+"Thank God! there is some escape for us!" said the leader. "We will
+start immediately so as to lose no time, and we are much indebted to
+you, sir, and to the young gentleman here. It is brave of you to retire
+from this swindling affair, as though you would not say so, we can see
+that it is a great loss to you. May God reward you for what you have
+done for us, and for our wives and children!"
+
+He offered his hand to the merchant, who took it mechanically, and the
+words of farewell with which he released the people were just as
+spiritless.
+
+But Gustave shook them all heartily by the hand, and rang the bell
+violently to summon a servant, whom he ordered to accompany them to the
+German Consulate and only to leave them at the door.
+
+When they were gone, Sandow threw himself into a chair; and the
+agitation which had been so sternly repressed now claimed its rights;
+he appeared crushed beneath it.
+
+"Father, for God's sake what is the matter?" cried Frida, throwing her
+arms round him, but now Gustave re-entered, his face actually beaming
+with triumph.
+
+"Let him be, Frida, it will pass. You have indeed right to be proud of
+your father! Frank, from the moment when our countrymen stood before
+you, I was certain that you would in the end warn them against your own
+speculation, but that you would have recommended them to the other
+company, against which Jenkins quite lately published a most violent
+article in the _New York Revolver Press_, that I did not hope, and for
+that I must shake you by the hand?"
+
+But Sandow waved him and his proffered hand away, and pressed his
+daughter to his breast. A bitter expression rested on his lips as he
+said--
+
+"You don't know what Gustave has done to you, my child, nor what this
+hour may yet cost to your father. From to-day Jenkins will be my most
+unyielding enemy, and will never rest from attacking me. I have placed
+myself only too entirely in his hands."
+
+"Throw the whole thing over and come with us to Germany," cried
+Gustave. "Why should you allow yourself to be tormented and harassed
+by these honourable New Yorkers, when you could live happy and
+comfortably in your native land. When Jessie is married there will be
+an end of the name of Clifford, why not also wind up the firm. Of
+course you will lose by withdrawing from the thing, but for German
+ideas you are still rich enough, and there is plenty of room for
+activity at home."
+
+"What are you proposing to me!" exclaimed Sandow, irritably.
+
+"Just what you proposed to me when you called me here. I think the best
+way is to turn the thing completely round. Look how Frida's face lights
+up at the thought of home! Naturally she will never again leave her
+father, wherever he may be, but it may be your lot to see her die of
+home-sickness some day."
+
+Gustave had cleverly set the most efficacious spring in motion. Sandow
+gave a startled look at his daughter, whose eyes certainly beamed when
+her home was mentioned, and who now resignedly drooped her head.
+
+"Come, Jessie," said Gustave, taking the arm of his betrothed, "we will
+leave them alone. I must explain all this to you, for I see that you
+only half comprehend it, and besides I feel an urgent necessity to be
+again admired by you. Yesterday you did me an extraordinary amount of
+good."
+
+He led her away, and father and daughter remained alone. Frida required
+no explanation, he had long ago divined the circumstances, and clinging
+close to her father, she said with the deepest affection--
+
+"I knew very well when we were standing that time by the sea that you
+could never send any one into misery!"
+
+Sandow looked long and deeply into the dark eyes, which now beamed with
+love and admiration. It was the first time he did so, without reading a
+reproach in them, and he felt as if redeemed to a new life.
+
+"No, my child!" said he softly, "I could not do it, and now whatever
+may come, we will bear it together."
+
+Meanwhile Gustave and Jessie strolled arm-in-arm through the garden,
+but at first their talk was very serious. He told her all, screening
+his brother as much as possible, whom he represented as the victim of a
+deception which had only just become clear to him. When he had
+finished, Jessie said eagerly--
+
+"Gustave, even if my money had been mixed up with this, it is
+unnecessary to say that we will leave it to the uncontrolled management
+of your brother as long as he wants it."
+
+"Your money has never been concerned in it," Gustave informed her.
+"Whatever Frank may be as a speculator, as a guardian, he is
+conscientiousness itself. He has respected your father's will to the
+fullest extent. You are and remain still an heiress, Jessie, but in
+spite of that uncomfortable peculiarity, I am resolved to marry you,
+and in four weeks, too."
+
+"That is impossible," protested Jessie. "There are so many things to
+order and prepare. You must see yourself that the time is too short."
+
+"I see nothing of the kind," declared Gustave. "The business part my
+brother will arrange, everything can be settled within the time named.
+In your America everything is done at express speed, speculation,
+fortune-making, even living and dying. I do not find this custom
+unpleasant since it can be extended even to marrying, and as your
+future tyrant I require you to become my wife in four weeks."
+
+Jessie did not appear to dread this tyranny too much, but after some
+discussion she, smiling and blushing, consented, when her lover said--
+
+"At least I can stand by my brother when the first storm breaks, and it
+will not be long before it does. At the Consulate, of course, all the
+particulars will be learnt, and by the evening they will have spread
+through the whole town. That amiable agent, the admirer of my literary
+fame, will first tear his hair, and then send telegram upon telegram to
+New York. I wish I could see how Jenkins and Co. breathe fire and
+flame, and wish me in the lowest depths of hell. With God's help I hope
+to renew that pleasure whenever my articles appear. They shall learn to
+know the pen they wished to buy."
+
+"But do you think really that my guardian can release himself from
+these obligations?" asked Jessie.
+
+"He must, at any price! After the events of to-day there is no choice
+left him, and he is business man enough to save all that is possible.
+Jenkins will certainly make his life a misery to him, so much the
+better! Then he will be obliged to turn his eyes towards Germany, and
+we shall win him back. He will never return to his old fever for
+speculation, and here there is so much temptation to it. The ice is now
+broken, and Frida has so much of the charm of novelty about her that we
+may confidently leave the rest to her. I pledge my word on it, in a few
+years she will bring her father home to us!"
+
+They had unconsciously reached the shore, and now stood by the bench
+where Frida had sat on that memorable evening. Before them lay the sea,
+bathed in sunshine.
+
+Gustave pointed across it, while he put his arm round his future wife.
+
+"There lies my native land, Jessie! In a few weeks it will also be your
+home, as it was the home of your own mother, and as such you will learn
+to love it. What my brother declared this morning may be true--that
+here the intellectual field too, is wider and freer than with us, that
+one rises more rapidly here, and wields a mightier power, even with the
+pen. With us just now, our first duty is to hold high our flag in the
+midst of the hottest fight, and to defend it with the whole strength of
+our lives. But that I will do joyfully and with all my heart, and ask
+no other reward than that my Jessie, my beloved wife, shall be
+contented with her egoist."
+
+
+
+                                THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+          Printed by Remington & Co., 134, New Bond Street, W.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Partners, by E. Werner
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARTNERS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 35135.txt or 35135.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/1/3/35135/
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/35135.zip b/35135.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..db81ceb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35135.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..11082ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #35135 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35135)