Anton stood for a moment thoughtful and perplexed; the future so suddenly opened out to him looked fair and promising, but he soon collected himself, and, turning to the principal, inquired, "Is it your opinion that I should do right to go?" "I can not say it is, dear Wohlfart," was the merchant's grave reply. "Then I remain," said Anton, decidedly. "Do not be angry with me, Fritz, for not following you. I am an orphan, and have now no home but this house and this firm. If Mr. Schroeter will keep me, I will remain with him." Evidently touched by the words, the merchant replied: "Remember, however, that thus deciding you give up much. In my counting-house you can neither become a rich man, nor have any experience of life on a large and exciting scale; our business is limited, and the day may come when you will find this irksome. All that tends to your future independence, wealth, connections, and so forth, you will more readily secure in America than with me." "My good father often used to say to me, 'Dwell in the land; and verily thou shalt be fed.' I will live according to his wish," said Anton, in a voice low with emotion. "He is, and always will be, a mere cit," cried Fink, in a sort of despair. "I believe that this love of country is a very sound foundation for a man's fortune to rise upon," said the merchant, and there was an end of the matter. Fink said nothing more about the proposal, and Anton tried, by countless small attentions, to show his friend how dear he was to him, and how much he regretted his departure. That evening Fink said to Anton, "Hearken, my lad; I have a fancy to take a wife across with me." Anton looked at his friend in utter amazement, and, like one who has received a great shock and wishes to conceal it often does, he inquired, in forced merriment, "What! you will actually ask Fraeulein von Baldereck--" "That's not the quarter. What should I do with a woman whose only thought would be how she could best amuse herself with her husband's money?" "But who else can you be thinking of? Not of the ancient cousin of the house?" "No, my fine fellow, but of the young lady of the house." "For Heaven's sake, no!" cried Anton, springing up; "that would, indeed, be a pretty business." "Why so?" was the cool reply. "Either she takes me, and I am a lucky man, or she takes me not, and I start without a wife." "But have you ever thought of it before?" inquired Anton, uneasily. "Sometimes--indeed often during the last year. She is the best housewife, and the noblest, most unselfish creature in the world." Anton looked at his friend in growing astonishment. Not once had Fink given him the remotest hint of such a thing. "But you never told me of it." "Have you ever told me of your feelings for another young lady?" replied Fink, laughing. Anton blushed and was silent.