Fickle Fortune

e and Capulet game. Neither the Countess nor Rüstow had yielded an inch. They were vigorous as ever in their opposition to the projected marriage between their

or tragic view of their temporary separation. A love affair, the course of which had constantly run smooth, would no doubt have appeared to them excessively tame and wearisome. Parental opposition gave to this courtship the necessary spice of romance. They revelled in the situation with all the eagerness of their youthful years, and looked on themselves and their true love as intensely poetical and interesting. Neither felt any uneasiness

, where she had purchases to make. She came back to Brunneck suspecting nothing, and prepared to find the old feud with Ettersberg raging fiercely a

embarrassed, half wrathful. 'She is not h

f any member of the household, for the Councillor was in the habit of venting his anger on all about him, his daughter only excepted. On this occasion, however, the tra

telegram, but I begged him to let me convey the pleasant tidings. You have

. But I wish the judgment had been given a few weeks back; now my pl

fident about the final issue. No doubt the opposite party wil

d,' grumbled Rüstow, still with

f that. The lawyer has already taken his meas

thinking of appealing. The lawsuit is over and done with, and th

Erich, what makes you look so black and miserable, and why is

spirits, and at the present moment is staying over at Ettersberg with her future mother-in-law. That is right, L

and was staring at her cousin in speechle

hair's-breadth of finding us all dead and gone, Lina. The Countess was as nea

hat luck?' exclaimed the old lad

ls; deadly peril, consequent emotion, embracing of the lovers! We were in the midst of it all, and found ourselves giving our parental ben

in, half desperate with the prolonged suspense. 'If you go on in this way,

et but the Ettersberg carriage with the Countess in it! We, of course, took no notice, pretended not to know each other; but our coachmen, instead of not noticing, rushed together like mad. I shouted to Anthony to stop, but the other idiot came tearing on, until the animals brushed against each other. The high-spirited Ettersberg steeds took this amiss. They reared and plunged and kicked, and finally set off at furious speed, almost smashing our wheels for us as they passed. The coachman tried all sorts of foolish m

istening in bre

ible! Was there

me for much reflection, and I soon gave up running after the carriage. Happily we had halted close to that steep footpath which shortens the way down

the old lady, wit

d scared, that he was nearly as unconscious as his mistress. Now, a pair of restive horses I can manage at a pinch, but fainting ladies are altogether out of my line. Presently, however, Hedwig came flying down the footpat

?' interposed his

ed to themselves the special pleasure of breaking their carriage-pole and of so injuring our wheels in the rencontre, that we could not move the landau from the spot. So I sent the footman over to Ettersberg to fetch another vehicle, despatche

t you did not behave with rudene

fore intensely polite to each other, and intensely anxious about each other's welfare. I hoped the matter would blow over with an expression of thanks and a courteous farewell, and I was looking out, longing for the arrival of the Ettersberg carriage, when suddenly, instead of it. Count Edmund came up at a tearing gallop. From the footman's confused report he had thought that his mother was injured or half dead, and he had not waited for the ca

s cousin took it into her head to produce her handkerchief and press i

ng I had saved his mother's life, and that he would rather owe such a debt to me, the father of his Hedwig, than to anyone in the world.' Here Rüstow's strides grew longer and his countenance more wrathful. 'Yes, that is what he had the coolness to say, "the father of his Hedwig"! I tried to shake him off; then Hedwig got the other side of me, and began the same story about the mother of her Edmund. Presently the Countess stepped up, and held out her hand to me--well, you can imagine the rest. As I said

dy,' said Aunt Lina, a little piqued.

At this moment a servant came in, and announced the

dy. Each time I have shown my nose outside the door to-day, somebody has come up to me with a smirk and a smile, and some hint about the "happy event." But I can't stand it yet. I must collect my thoughts and get u

the worthy man had no sooner entered than he proceeded solemnly and with much unction to offer to the old lady his h