"What does it mean? Only a song--notes and words--no word of explanation with it--just your name below. Have you composed it?" Reinhold took the paper again, closed the letter and put it in his pocket. "It is an attempt, nothing more. She is _artiste_ enough to judge of it. She can accept or reject it." "Then you compose also?" asked the Captain, whose face had become serious all at once. "I did not think that your passionate liking for music went so far as creating it yourself. Poor Reinhold, how can you bear this life, with all its narrow, confined ways, wishing to stifle every spark of poetry as being unnecessary or dangerous? I could not do it." Reinhold had thrown himself upon the seat before the piano again. "Do not ask me how I endure it," he replied, with suppressed feeling. "It is enough _that_ I do it." "I guessed long since that your letters were not open," continued Hugo; "that behind all the contentment with which you tried to deceive me, something quite different was concealed. The truth has become plain to me, during one week in this house, notwithstanding that you gave yourself all conceivable trouble to hide it from me." The young man gazed gloomily before him. "Why should I worry you, when far away, with anxieties about me? You had enough to do to take care of yourself, and there was a time, too, when I was contented, or at least believed myself so, because my whole mental being lay, as it were, under a spell, when I allowed everything to pass over me in stupid indifference, and I offered my hand willingly for the chain. I have done it; well, yes! But I must carry it my whole life long!" Hugo had gone towards him, and laid his hand upon his brother's shoulder. "You mean your marriage with Ella? At the first news of it, I knew it must be my uncle's work." A bitter smile played round the young man's lips as he answered scornfully-- "He was always a splendid master of calculation, and he has shown it again in this case. The poor relation, taken up out of kindness and charity, must consider it happiness that he is raised to be son and heir of the house, and the daughter must be married some time; so it was a case of securing, by means of her hand, a successor for the firm, who bore the same name. It was neither Ella's nor my fault that we were bound together. We were both young, without wills, without knowledge of life or of ourselves. She will always remain so--well for her. It has not been so fortunate for me." One would hardly have credited those merry brown eyes with the power of looking so serious as at this moment, when he bent down to his brother.