Meanwhile, so ingenious is thorough selfishness, she fancied herself a benefactor of the whole human race. All the cajoleries she used to practise, she thought were the amiable overflowings of a kindly nature; her coarse flatteries she deemed irresistible fascinations; her duperies even seemed only the triumphs of a mind transcendently rich in resources, and never for a moment suspected that the false coin she was uttering could be called in question, though the metal was too base for imposition. There is no supply without demand, and if the world did not like such characters there would be none of them. The Rickettses are, however, a large and an increasing class of society, and, to our national shame be it said, they are distinctively English in origin. And now we leave her, little regretting if it be forever; and if we turn to a darker page in our story, it is, at least, to one wherein our sympathies are more fairly enlisted. That long night passed over like a dreary dream, and morning was now mingling its beams with the glare of the tapers, as Nelly sat beside the death-bed. “Come with me, Fräulein! come away from this,” said Hanserl, as with a tearful eye and quivering lip he stood before her. Nelly shook her head slowly, and for answer turned her gaze on the dead man. “You shall come back again; I promise you, you shall come back again,” said he, softly. She arose without a word and followed him. They passed through an outer room, and entered the garden, where Hans, taking her hand, led her to a seat. “You will be better here, Fräulein,” said he, respectfully; “the air is fresh and balmy.” “He sat beside me on this bench three nights ago,” said she, as if talking to herself, “and said how he wished I could be with Kate, but that he could not part with me; and see,--we are parted, and for a longer separation! Oh, Hanserl! what we would give to recall some of the past, when death has closed it forever against us!” “Remember Wieland, Fräulein; he tells us that 'the Impossible is a tree without fruit or flowers.'” “And yet my mind will dwell on nothing else. The little thwartings of his will, the cold compliance which should have been yielded in a better spirit, the counsels that often only irritated,--how they rise up now, like stern accusers, before me, and tell me that I failed in my duty.” “Not so, Fräulein, not so,” said Hans, reverently.