were mentioned he laughed at them, not as being false, but as being rather advantageous than otherwise to the character of a young man of spirit; and when he saw the impression made upon my mother, he endeavoured to excuse you, but in so equivocal a manner that her suspicions were fully confirmed."

"Ida," said Carl, in great agitation, "this Wolfenstein loves you-he confided the secret to me before he knew that I loved you myself."

"And to me also," replied Ida; "but not yet to my mother. Good heaven, spare me that, or I am lost!" "And is it this man whose words can have weight with you on such a subject ?"

"With me!" exclaimed Ida, bursting into tears; "Oh, Carl Benzel, is it you who asks? Have I not known you for more than a year, even as a sister knows her brother? Have I not wandered with you, night after night, through these garden walks, at the very hour when my mother believed you to be breathing the poisonous atmosphere of a gaming-house? Has a single thought of your soul been withheld from me? Do I not know you-although rash and hot-tempered, and too brave to be good, and true, and high-minded, and purehearted? But what of that? I heard you reviled without uttering a word; and when my mother prophesied that your career was near its close, that your moderate fortune must touch upon exhaustion, and that in a little while you would find yourself an outcast and a beggarI could but weep!"

"Heaven bless you!"

"And then the fruits of long months of mean concealment were lost; my mother looked at me as if she would read my very soul, and I could but hide my face in my hands, and weep the more." Carl Benzel was silent for some moments. He stood, tall and still, in the shadow of the house, with his hat drawn over his brows,

and his eyes fixed upon the ground.

" with

"Ida," said he at last, but without looking up, you I am all that you have described. When we love,

the mind reflects unconsciously the image of her who governs its pulses; just as the calm ocean gives back the

radiant form of the moon. Alone-oh there it is!when our good angel is absent-when evil thoughts crowd in like demons-when the shadow of the black wing of the Tempter falls chill and heavy upon the heart

"Look up; let me see your face." Carl Benzel obeyed; and she could perceive, in the imperfect light, that it was as pale as marble.

"Say on."

ter.

"Ida," said he, starting, "I fear you have accustomed yourself to think of me not as a brother but as a sisThe sexes are different in soul as well as body, and what we term, at the worst, folly, you will look upon as crime. Can you bear to hear the truth? When you know from my own lips that I have gamed, that I have plunged into dissipation, that I have impaired my estate, will you cast me off? will you wed the baron of Wolfenstein if your mother issues the command ?"

"You do but mock me."

"O would to heaven I did! But speak, what is your decision? The avowal I have made is only premature by one night, for to-morrow it was to have been my business here." Ida was weeping, but as much at the harshness, or rather hardness, of Carl's manner as at the disclosure.

"Speak," said he, more softly; "but remember that you know what I can be when you are with me, and that I have talked of follies which the sun shall never look upon again.

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"Carl," replied Ida, after a momentary struggle, "the thought was in my heart when I came here to-night, but till now I believed that I should never have had the

courage to give it utterance. I will save you, however, even from yourself, since your words imply that it is in my power to do so. You have often implored me to fly with you from my home, my friends, my mother-I consent! There, take me, I am yours!" and she leaned suddenly out of the window, as if she would have thrown herself into his arms, while her tears rained bright and fast upon his face.

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"My noble Ida,"exclaimed the lover, with a burst of enthusiasm.

Stay not for speech," she continued, " for I am only amazed that we have been so long uninterrupted. Tomorrow I shall be a prisoner. To-night it must be done or never. My money and jewels are at hand; in another minute I shall spring into your arms!"

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"Ida,” cried Carl with a gasp, "I cannot permit this; take another day to prepare, and I shall be at your window at the accustomed hour.'

"Now or never.

To-morrow I shall be a prisoner."

"I will set you free!"

"A room is already preparing for me in the centre of the building."

"I shall reach it, were it in the centre of the earth!" "I have offered," said Ida, beginning to tremble, " do you reject the gift?"

"To-morrow night

66 To-night or never!" and her heart grew sick and faint.

"Listen-it is for your own sake

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Speak-in a word! To-morrow, and every other morrow, it is impossible. I accord you a minute for decision. It is elapsed!"

"Hark!"

The belfry clock struck.

"It is the twelfth hour!" and Ida shut the window. Carl retraced his steps to the town, his head reeling, and his heart burning with the torture of Tantalus. After threading some obscure streets, he at length reached a spacious mansion, which, although completely dark without, was brilliantly lighted up within. He paused in an ante-chamber, and looked with a sinking heart into the interior, which was full of company clustering eagerly round the table. There seemed to be a repulsive property in the very atmosphere which prevented him from entering; and as he thought of the "good angel" whose protection he had rejected, a feeling approaching to faintness came over him, and he leaned for support against the door-post.

"Thunder of heaven!" cried one of the gamesters, rushing past him; "it is of no use, I will play no more!

What, Benzel, art thou asleep-or ruined?" The speaker was a young man, about Carl's own age, and possessing equal advantages of person. There was,

however, in his manner, particularly when he laboured under any excitation, a dash of the vulgar ferocity affected to this moment by many of the youth of Germany; and at such times a foreigner could hardly have believed him to be a man accustomed to good society. His dress was half military half civilian; and instead of wearing his sword concealed like that of Carl, it hung ostentatiously from his girdle, in which was stuck a brace of handsomely mounted pistols.

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Wolfenstein," said Benzel sternly; "I have an account to settle with you.'

"I pray heaven then," replied the baron, "that you are due me a balance, for I have not twenty dollars left to carry me to the Black Forest."

"Be satisfied, sir, that I shall pay you what I owe. Meet me at the Ketschenbourg as soon as it is light enough to see the point of your sword."

"You mean coffee, then ?"

"Blood!"

"Indeed! Will not candle-light do as well, and a private room where we are ?"

"Not at present. I am pledged to another game. İn a single hour I shall either be a beggar or

"The son-in-law elect of Madame Dallheimer." "You are insolent."

"That is enough; I shall not fail you." The baron then left the house whistling a popular air, and Benzel, whose courage was restored by the prospect of physical danger, walked into the gaming-room.

CHAPTER II.

HOW CARL BENZEL LOSES HIS MISTRESS.

It was nearly daylight when the baron of Wolfenstein was standing by the wall of the garden of Ketschenbourg, industriously employed in polishing the blade of his sword with his glove. His task, however, was very little advanced, when he saw running, or rather rushing, along the road, a figure resembling that of his adversary.

"Qui vive?" shouted the baron.

"Are you ready?" demanded Carl, without stopping.

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Always!"-Their swords clashed before the word had completely left his lips; and Wolfenstein fell upon his knee from the shock, while the weapon of his impetuous challenger, less by skill than fortune, sprang out of his hand to the distance of many yards.

"Fool!" cried Carl, as the baron dropped the point of his sword, "the game is yours! Strike, if you would not have me report you ignorant of the laws of arins !"

"Demand your life!"

"Strike, I say; strike speedily, and home!"

"For what? To revenge you on yourself? Not I, by the Three Kings! You may win your Ida, and wear her for me; I am off to my own dominions, where there is one far kinder, and as fair. But how go the cards? You have the look of a man who has just lost his last dollar."

"O that I could change places with such a man! How cheerfully would I not dig the earth for a sustenance, or sell my blood for a consideration! But there is no beggar so lost, so hopeless, so desperate as I. I have lost a treasure that all the gold of the east could

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