'Why not, Mr Welters? Does it appear to you unfit? I suppose you think that a young lady cannot with impunity be brought up entirely out of society. Celine has too little knowledge of the world to be aware that timidity and shyness are expected from a young lady, and she is too natural to feign a feeling which she does not possess. There is no danger, and if there were, Celine has plenty of courage, and would know how to defend herself; of that I am quite sure.'

There was a certain pride in the way Mr Arnold spoke of Celine. Otto had remarked this already, and he could forgive the father who felt pride in such a beautiful gifted daughter.

But now Otto took his leave, since he could not expect her to come back. As he was going away and had reached the end of the terrace, Celine with her faithful Cæsar emerged from the shade of a dark path and stood before him.

'I was just thinking of you, Mr Welters,' she said, coming towards him: 'guess what I was thinking of.'

That you had given me no opportunity of thanking you for the pleasure I have had in your singing and playing,' said Otto, heartily.

Celine laughed; it was too dark to distinguish her countenance; but he saw her white teeth shine and her eyes glisten in the darkness.

'No, I certainly did not think of that, Mr Welters. I could not help its not being more cheerful. All day I have gone about with stupid sorrowful thoughts; but they have been driven away by my playing, and now it is all right again.' She interrupted herself- Now I must just tell you what I was thinking of, only you must not laugh at me.'

'Surely not, Miss Celine.'

'I want to know what your Christian name is which begins with an O. I can only think of two, Oscar and Oswald.'

'Have you never heard of Otto?'

'Otto; well, that is a pretty name, Mr Welters. I think I shall call you Otto in future. May I?'

'By all means,' said Otto.

'Yes, but you must call me Celine, or I shall not dare to call you Otto.'

'Good evening, Celine,' said Otto.

'Good evening, Otto.' This last was accompanied with a clear laugh, and the next moment she had vanished into the wood by a side-path.

During the whole way home Otto could not help thinking of Celine; there was something unaccountably charming in her which quite carried him away. The contrast between her mental developments and her childlike naïveté attracted him irresistibly. He thought how entirely different she was from all the other young ladies he had hitherto met. He thought of the deep passionate feeling which had betrayed itself in her playing; and of the dark eyes which had flashed like two stars in the dusky evening.

He was startled out of his meditations by the striking of the clock over the town gate, which meanwhile he had approached.

It was with a feeling of annoyance and surprise that he counted ten. Quickening his steps he was soon in the well-known street.

But the light in the passage of Uncle Van Stein's house was already out, and Otto knew that to ring would involve Mary in more unpleasantness.

'I hope she has not been waiting for me, the dear child,'

he said, again looking up at the dark house. He then turned back and walked slowly and sunk in thought to his chambers.

THE

CHAPTER VII.

THE BALL.

HE day of the ball at last dawned-I say at last, to express Elizabeth's thoughts; for in her young mind the fête to which she looked forward with so much impatience was the limit of her estimate of time, and the whole of the preceding week seemed to her interminable.

She literally danced round her ball dress when it was completed, and during the two days which intervened before it could be put on she could never pass the bedroom door without turning in, putting her head into the wardrobe, and feasting her eyes on the garment as it lay there in all its whiteness and grace.

She told Emmy in confidence, that she thought it quite a pity that no aunt of hers had just died; for Emmy, being still in mourning, was to appear entirely in white, whilst Elizabeth had to submit to rose-coloured ribbons and a pale red rose in her dark hair, which Mrs Welters had chosen.

As to that hair of Elizabeth's, a very important matter had a short time since occurred in the family. Only two months ago her long thick plaits had been one of her greatest attractions, but when Emmy appeared at Dilburg with her short crop of curly hair, which she did not know how else to manage, Elizabeth thought that no prettier coiffure could be devised in the whole world of

fashion, and without asking any one's advice, she one evening applied the scissors to her beautiful plaits, so that on the following morning she appeared at breakfast like a shorn sheep.

Like a shorn sheep, I say, because neither art nor patience could force the slightest resemblance to a curl into her luxuriant but straight hair.

At this discovery the young lady was somewhat discomposed, looking at the hair she had cut off, whilst she listened to the not altogether undeserved lecture of her mother. But hardly half an hour later, with her imperturbable good humour, she sat down to laugh at her own folly.

Suppose I try and fasten it on with glue, Emmy; suppose I were to offer my hair to Mina as a birthday present ?

'But she already has some in a little box, and it grows on her head on Sundays and fete days.' With all her jokes, however, Elizabeth felt great annoyance at her short hair, and the evening before the ball a long conference took place between her and her hair-dresser-the hair-dresser of Dilburg-who, with the help of a mysterious instrument and hot coals, contrived to form stiff curls in Elizabeth's hair, at least for the one evening of the ball.

It was her head, with at least forty curl papers hanging to it, which just peeped into Emmy's room, her eyes beaming with delight when the great operation of dressing had begun.

It will be all right after all, Emmy.' Such were the important words which Elizabeth had felt it necessary to utter, and for which she had left her own room. Before Emmy could answer her she had whisked away. Emmy laughed at Elizabeth's childish excitement, as

indeed every member of the family had done during the week; but in Emmy's heart there was a joyful emotion in expectation of the fête of the evening. It was her first ball also; and any one who has not forgotten what that word means, any one who has experienced what it expresses more especially when that word is in connection with meeting some one who is preferred to the whole world-can comprehend why Emmy's eyes sparkled, why her heart beat so gaily, whilst she was dressing for her first ball.

For it was true, what the Dilburgers began to whisper to each other-what Mina divined, when she so frequently of late chose as the subject of her conversation the unhappy life of a naval officer's wife; it was true, although it lived as yet unuttered in both hearts, unacknowledged by Emmy even to herself; it was nevertheless true that Bruno and Emmy loved each other.

It had come to pass as it might have been foreseen it would do-as it must do. The feeling implanted in childhood had now taken new root in their young, warm, and more impressionable hearts, and had grown with daily increasing strength into that ever wonderful tree which blooms but once in every human life; once dazzles the eye with its splendour, and blooming or withered makes its ennobling influence felt through life till its last day.

'When I look at you and Elizabeth, I think of a white and a red rose, Emmy,' said Otto, looking with satisfaction at the sisters in their white tulle ball-dresses, when they were all assembled in the sitting-room dressed for the ball.

The two roses blushed with pleasure; but before Otto had caught sight of the cloud on Mina's face and could make good his mistake, William, with his usual desire to plague Mina, made the matter much worse by saying