And as he thought of her festive anniversary, and of her letter to Maienthal, which had given him the greatest praise, that of being a scholar of Emanuel, and of little tokens of her regard for him, and of the sweet fraternization of his heart with hers,--ay, then did the heavenly hope of winning this ennobled heart for the first time draw near to him amidst the music, and that hope caused the sounds of the harmonica, like dying echoes, to float far and wide over the whole future of his life.... "Victor!' said some one, in a slowly lengthened tone. He sprang up and turned his exalted features toward the--brother of his Clotilda, and embraced him with joy. Flamin, into whom all music flung war-flames and more open sincerity, looked at him wonderingly, inquiringly, and with an imperceptible suspicion, and with that friendliness which resembled scorn, but which was never anything but the smarting of injuries received. "Why didst thou not take me, too, with thee to-day?" said Flamin, in a friendly tone. Victor pressed his hand, and was silent. "No! speak!" said he. "Let it be for to-day, my Flamin; I'll tell thee some time," replied Victor. "I will tell it to thee myself," Flamin began, more quickly and warmly. "Thou thinkest, perhaps, I shall be jealous. And look thou, did I not know thee, I should be so: truly, another would be so, if he had thus lighted upon thee here, and put all things together,--thy late retreat from our summer-house out into the foliage, thy writing without a light, and thy singing of love"---- "To Emanuel," said Victor, softly. "Thy sending off that leaf to her"---- "It was another from her album," said he. "Still worse; _that_ I did not even know. Thy lingering in St. Luna, and a thousand other signs, which do not immediately occur to me,--thy going off alone today"---- "O my Flamin, this is going too far! thou seest with other eyes than those of friendship."-- Here Flamin, who never could dissemble without immediately becoming what he assumed, and who could never recount an offence without falling into the old anger, grew warmer, and said, in a less friendly manner,-- "And others, too, see it,--even the Chamberlain, and the Chamberlain's wife." This tore Victor's heart. "Thou dear old friend of my youth! so, then, we are to be drawn and torn asunder, bleed we ever so much; so, then, this Matthieu is to succeed (for all comes from him, not from thee, thou good soul!) in getting thee to torment thyself, and me to torment thee. No, he shall not succeed; thou shalt not be taken from me. See, by Heaven!" (and here the feeling of his innocence stood in Victor erect and sublime,) "and though thou shouldst for years misunderstand me, still the time will come when thou shalt start back, and say to me, 'I have done thee wrong!'--But I shall gladly forgive thee." This touched the jealous one, who to-day, indeed, (for a special reason,) was more composed.