One morning, as Clara was busy in the conservatory, Susie brought her the card of a gentleman who was waiting in the sitting-room. “Frauenstein?” said Clara, looking at the card, on which was written, in pencil underneath the name, “sends his compliments to Mrs. Delano and her partner, and would esteem it a favor to be admitted into her conservatories.” “Bring him in, Susie. I cannot present myself in the drawing-room in this rig. Don’t you think I shall make an impression on his countship?” she asked, glancing at her looped-up dress and bibbed apron. “Why not? You are beautiful in any dress.” “You wicked little flatterer! Well, send in his Exalted Highness, the Count Von Frauenstein.” Before Clara had scarcely glanced at the face of the count, she was strongly impressed with the distinguished air of the man. He wore a dark-blue circular, reaching nearly to the knee, and as he stepped through the folding-doors into the broad, central passage in the conservatory, he removed a very elegant shaped hat of soft felt, and seeing Clara, bowed silently, with a simple, courtly air, seldom attained except by men of the Continent. Clara returned the salute, but remembering the European custom, did not offer him her hand. “Madam,” he said, “I have had several glimpses of your flowers from the outside, and I greatly desire to have a better view, if you will pardon my presumption.” “I am very glad to see you, sir,” Clara replied. “My father has often spoken of you, for he is one of your ardent admirers.” “He flatters me greatly. I am proud of his good opinion, for it is worth more than that of other men.” After passing, in a few minutes, those meaningless and unremembered preliminaries, inevitable between those meeting for the first time, and conscious of affecting each other and of being affected by a new and strange power, the count said: “To-night I hope to meet Dr. Forest at the Kendrick reception. You, madam, do not patronize the society here much, I think, or I should have had the pleasure of meeting you.” Clara’s perfect lips curled slightly, as she said, “No; I am nearly always at home since I returned to Oakdale.”