"There is no fear," answered Gertrude; and it was wonderful to see how a bright smile transformed her face. "Have I not these children to think for? But Your Highness' words have given me a new hope; they have revived the life that was well-nigh dead within me. I am strong yet. I and my children can work, and you say no one need want work in America." "Leisure is much more to seek than work, I do assure you, good dame. Ladies of birth and education in the northern colonies—so I am credibly informed—perform all the menial offices of their households because there are no servants. I have myself dined at the house of a gentleman where the dinner was cooked by the hands of the lady and her daughters, and well cooked too.—And that reminds me to ask for my brother. I dare say he has forgotten that we have had nothing to-day but a crust and a glass of wine." "If Your Highness would partake of our coarse fare, I should be only too much honoured to prepare refreshments for you," said Gertrude, eagerly. "I have a pie and some sausages which my uncle's wife sent me, and we have cream and fresh butter. If Your Highness could eat black bread—I fear there is none other to be had, but ours is sweet and good." Count Maurice was a very good-natured man as well as a very fine gentleman in the true sense of those abused words. He loved to give pleasure and he knew how to do it—how to enter into the feelings of those about him. He had no trouble in seeming interested in his fellow-creatures, simply because he really was interested. This was a secret which the landgrave never could understand. He admired his young cousin's easy manners and tried to imitate them, for he really did want his people to like him, but he never succeeded. It was the ox trying to imitate the frolics of the greyhound. Count Maurice readily and gracefully accepted the hospitality of Gertrude Reinhart, partly because he wished to give her pleasure, and partly because he was hungry and wanted his dinner; consequently, he did so without either awkwardness or condescension. When the widow called her daughter to help her, Margaret was amazed at the change in her mother's face. It was like the mother she remembered years ago. She wondered what the count could have been telling her. Meantime, Count Maurice entered into conversation with Philip, looked at and praised his wood-carving, and advised him to study drawing. "But I have no master," said Philip, doubtfully. "You have pencil and paper, and you have the things before you. Work at what you have, and the rest will come. The hand which carved this deer's head and this bunch of acorns should soon be able to do better things. But what have we here?" "It is the design I have been trying to make for a cross to mark my little brother's grave," said Philip; "but it does not satisfy me." "Philip, you will make an artist," said Count Maurice. "The world will hear of you some day."