whatever annoyed him; so that very soon she grew indispensable to
him--she became like his guardian angel, and he felt it keenly whenever
she was absent. Besides all this, too, she appeared to grow more open
and conversible as soon as they were alone together.

Edward, as he advanced in life, had retained something childish about
himself, which corresponded singularly well with the youthfulness of
Ottilie. They liked talking of early times, when they had first seen
each other; and these reminiscences led them up to the first epoch of
Edward's affection for Charlotte. Ottilie declared that she remembered
them both as the handsomest pair about the court; and when Edward would
question the possibility of this, when she must have been so exceedingly
young, she insisted that she recollected one particular incident as
clearly as possible. He had come into the room where her aunt was, and
she had hid her face in Charlotte's lap--not from fear, but from a
childish surprise. She might have added, because he had made so strong
an impression upon her--because she had liked him so much.

While they were occupied in this way, much of the business which the
two friends had undertaken together had come to a standstill; so that
they found it necessary to inspect how things were going on--to work up
a few designs and get letters written. For this purpose, they betook
themselves to their office, where they found their old copyist at his
desk. They set themselves to their work, and soon gave the old man
enough to do, without observing that they were laying many things on his
shoulders which at other times they had always done for themselves. At
the same time, the first design the Captain tried would not answer, and
Edward was as unsuccessful with his first letter. They fretted for a
while, planning and erasing, till at last Edward, who was getting on the
worst, asked what o'clock it was. And then it appeared that the Captain