"That I promise never to touch a card again!" Otto exclaimed, with an ugly laugh. "Of course I'll promise. But if the desire attacks me----" He broke off with a shrug. "When the desire attacks you there is no help save in your own firm will," said Johann Leopold. "I know this, and in this respect I leave you entirely to yourself. All that I can do is to relieve you from embarrassing circumstances." "Embarrassing?" Otto repeated. "Only embarrassing? Rather say desperate! What am I but the farmer of a small property? I, who detest farming; I, who am made for a soldier!" "But you voluntarily left the army," said Johann Leopold. Otto's eyes fell beneath his cousin's look. "No, not voluntarily; by the old man's orders," he replied. "Odd that he never wrote you how it was. It was all the fault of my unlucky passion for play. I had made a promise, and forgotten it, and he decreed that I should no longer wear the king's uniform." "He will reverse that decree," said Johann Leopold. "I will represent to him----" "You needn't trouble yourself. So long as he lives I must eat dirt. But if I had the means----" "For what?" Johann Leopold asked, when Otto paused. "To enter the Russian Guards," Otto replied. "A great deal is to be done there by patronage. Waldemar could be of service to me----" Johann Leopold was strangely moved. Was it mere chance, unconscious sympathy, that caused both to desire to go to Russia? At all events, he would help them as far as lay in his power. "I will supply the means," he said. "While I was away I inherited, as you probably know, the estates of my mother's eldest brother. My income from the Bohemian coal-mines will suffice for your needs. I will make it over to you. Do not thank me!" he added, as Otto started up, with an exclamation of astonishment. "It is not a gift, but a matter of exchange." "Exchange? I do not understand," cried Otto. "Then listen!" said Johann Leopold. And leaning his head upon his hand, so that his eyes were shaded, he went on, composedly: "I shall never marry----" "Johann Leopold!" Otto exclaimed. "I shall never marry," he repeated, quietly; "but I do not wish to renounce the task, and I consider it an interesting and delightful one, of educating a Dönninghausen heir. A month ago, as you know, a son was born to your brother Waldemar. The infant's grandmother Walburg, our grandfather, and I are to stand sponsors, and it is my wish to adopt the little Johann Karl Leopold. Of course the future heir must be brought up here. Waldemar must agree to that, and our grandfather will be glad----" "And I?" cried Otto. "There seems to be no question of me here. Please do not forget that I am the elder brother, and that, if you do not marry, the inheritance of Dönninghausen falls to me and to my heirs."