"I shall break off Countess Clara's engagement with Herr von Stielow in the quietest manner possible, and it will remain for you to do the best you can for yourself--your secret is safe with me. Again I thank you for your communication, however painful it was necessary, and has preserved us from much worse pain in the future." And she bowed her head in a way that showed Herr Balzer unmistakeably he was dismissed. He again held his handkerchief before his eyes, and said, in a whining voice: "I thank you, countess, I shall be eternally grateful to you; forgive me. I beg the young lady's forgiveness, too, for being the messenger of such evil tidings. But my lot is the worst. Oh! if you did but know how I loved my wife!" And as if overcome by the immensity of his grief, he bowed in silence, and left the room. He hastily brushed past the servant in the ante-room, and ran down the stairs; as soon as he had left the room the grave and sorrowful expression vanished from his face, a vulgar smile of triumph appeared upon his lips, and he said to himself, with great satisfaction,-- "Well, I think I did my business very well, and richly earned the thousand guldens my dearly beloved wife promised me, if I would free her dear Stielow. Now she can catch him again in her net; she will succeed, for she understands all that well, and then," he said, with a broader grin of satisfaction, "I shall have the right of grasping handfuls of the gold which this young millionaire will pour into her lap." With quick steps, he hastened to his wife, to tell her of the success of his negotiation. As soon as he left the room, Clara, without speaking a word, threw herself into her mother's arms, sobbing aloud. After the restraint she had put upon her feelings in the presence of a repulsive stranger, her tears flowed freely, and relieved the oppression of her heart. "Be strong, my daughter," said the countess, gently stroking her shining hair. "God sends you a hard trial; but it is better to tear yourself free from an unworthy engagement, than that this blow should fall upon you later." "Oh! my mother," cried the young countess, with the greatest grief, "this love made me so happy; he assured me so strongly he was quite free; I believed him so implicitly." Suddenly raising herself from her mother's arms, she rushed to the table where the letter lay which Herr Balzer had given the countess. With a slight shudder, she seized the fatal letter, and read the contents with large, dilated eyes. Then she threw it from her with a look of horror, and sinking into a chair, wept bitterly.