‘She was penniless when she married, and her husband’s family had been a declining one for generations. When he died, she was left without a stick or stone of land or house, and without a penny of fortune. She retired into a _Stift_--an institution, you know, for poor ladies of noble family. There are many like it in Germany. She procured admittance for her son into a place of the same kind--a school, where he was hard-worked and ill-fed, and quite unable to pursue the real bent of his talent for music. I made the acquaintance of Frau von Birkenau six years ago. I could not describe her; she was a beautiful soul; she did more for me than any one I have ever known. She talked to me a great deal about her boy, and I went to see him. I liked him, and told her so. She asked me if I would think of him sometimes, and perhaps pay him an occasional visit, when she should be dead; she suffered from a painful complaint, and bore her sufferings like a heroine. I said the best and shortest way would be for her to make a will, appointing me her son’s guardian, when I should have full authority over him. This she did, about four years ago, and very shortly afterwards she died. On my signing a document to the purport that henceforth I undertook the duties of a parent to him, the authorities of the school permitted me to remove Hugo, to his and my great satisfaction. Since then he has been my companion in all my ramblings, and though I don’t wish to sound my own praises, I must say he looks a different fellow altogether from the white-faced, pinched-looking lad whom I took away with me overwhelmed with grief at his mother’s death.’ ‘In-deed!’ observed Mrs. Mallory, in cold tones of intense, though repressed, exasperation. ‘It sounds like a page from a romance. If my opinion were asked, I should say I could hardly tell whether he or you stood most in need of a guardian--of some one to control you. You have encumbered yourself with his entire maintenance. He is a pensioner on your bounty?’ Sebastian shook his head. Leaning his elbow upon the top of the piano, he remarked,