"So they meet often!" repeated Hummel, thoughtfully. "There again you have an instance of this overcrowding; they can't get out of each other's way. Well! I can trust to my daughter, Gabriel; she has my disposition." "I wouldn't be so sure of that," replied Gabriel laughing. "I assure you she is quite of my mind," affirmed Hummel, decidedly. "But, as to this cessation of hostilities, you need not rejoice so much at it; for, depend upon it, it cannot last long between our houses. When the ice has thawed, and the garden amusements begin, there will be trouble again. It has always been so and I do not see why it should not continue so, in spite of reconciliations, and in spite of your new mistress, for whom I nevertheless have great respect." The conversation, which had been carried on in the garden, was interrupted by a dark, solemn-looking man, who presented a large letter in a tinted envelope. He introduced himself to Mr. Hummel, and brought him an invitation for his absent daughter to undertake the office of godmother to a baby that had just been born to limit the space in the world still more. To this invitation no objection could be made; the young mother, the wife of a lawyer, was Laura's friend, and the daughter of her godmother. It was an old connection of the family, and Hummel, as father and citizen, duly accepted the invitation. "For whom is the other letter you have in your hand?" he asked of the messenger. "For Doctor Hahn, who is to stand with Miss Laura." "Indeed!" said Hummel, ironically; "matters are going at a great pace. Take your letter over there. Did I not tell you so, Gabriel?" he added, turning to his confidant. "Scarcely reconciled before the tribunal, and at once sponsors together; who may know but that to-morrow morning the old scarecrow himself will come over and offer to be 'hail-fellow-well-met' with me. There again you have the consequences of over-crowding, and of Christianity too. This time my poor child is the victim." He took the letter into the room and threw it on the table before his wife and daughter. "This comes from reconciliation, weak women," he cried, tauntingly. "Now you will have nurse, midwife, godfather, and all, about your heels." The ladies studied the letter, and Laura thought it inconsiderate in her godmother to have chosen just the Doctor for her partner. "That's to accommodate the sponsor's carriage," exclaimed Mr. Hummel, mockingly, from the corner. "It was made to carry two at once. Now, that fellow Humboldt will come over here in white gloves in order to fetch you to church, and I believe he will have impudence enough to send you a sponsorial present."