'Your own cousin a stranger?' persisted the Countess. 'But though we have discussed this subject a thousand times before, there is one feature in it to which I have never referred, and which, consequently, will be _new_ to you.' 'I am glad to hear _that_,' replied the contumacious little beauty, shrugging her pretty shoulders and almost yawning. 'I mean a clause in your father's will, by which, if you do not marry our Heinrich, your fortune will be divided between him and your cousin Ernestine,--leaving you, in fact, without a silver groschen.' 'I would not have a kreutzer of it--neither, I am sure, would Heinrich!' exclaimed Ernestine, emphatically. 'Neither of you would be consulted in the matter. But now, Herminia, will you brave the prospect of poverty--a life of utter dependence--go back to England as a governess, perhaps?' 'Yes,' said the girl proudly; 'I would brave anything.' 'You love some one else!' exclaimed her aunt. 'I have never said so,' replied Herminia, with a perceptible tremor in her sweet voice; 'but no doubt it is this fortune of which you speak that Heinrich wants.' 'Did he want it when you were in your cradle, and he was carrying his satchel at Bonn?' 'I should think not; but he may want it now, after some years spent in the army.' 'Shame! you forget yourself, Herminia--forget that you speak of your own cousin--of _my_ son. It is much more likely that some adventurous friend, some acquaintance, whom you have picked up here is thinking of your fortune, than my dear Heinrich.' The old lady's eyes were actually filled with tears, and after a pause she said: 'I regret, Herminia, that I ever sent you to England.' 'Why, dearest aunt?' 'Because those English girls, your school companions there, have indoctrinated you with preposterous ideas of female independence--right of choice, and so forth; and now that I think of it, _who_ is that gentleman with whom you waltz so frequently?' 'Waltz, aunt?' said the girl, in a low voice. 'And who gave you, last night, that rose which you now wear in your breast?' 'Last night, aunt?' faltered Herminia, now blushing deeply, while Ernestine laughed mischievously. 'Don't repeat my words, please. Yes, last night, when the band of the Uhlans was playing in the garden of the Prinz Carl?' 'Herr Ludwig Mansfeld.' 'And how came you to know him?' asked the Countess, severely, adding, 'I hope he is not an officer from the barracks?' (Such dreadful fellows 'those officers from the barracks' seem to be all the world over, from Canterbury to Cabul!) 'I met him first at a ball in the Kaiserlicher Hof, where the Master of the Ceremonies introduced him to me when you were playing cards in the ante-room. We dance frequently; and the introduction was unnecessary, according to our German ideas.' 'In--deed!' 'Is there any harm in all that when he dances so delightfully? 'And oh, how handsome he is!' exclaimed Ernestine.