brawling, no bloodshed, like those common burghers, whose sons are
even now rustling through the market-place. But wait a little; night
gives counsel. I think I have a way far more practical and less
hazardous than that which you propose--leave the matter in my hands,
Frederick. I am glad to find you have some spirit, that it has not
all been dissipated on that foolish girl; there is always hope in man
where there is energy. What I feared was that you might become a mere
dreamer, and struggle through an idle, vaporing existence: now I hold
that you are worthy of your name, although the conviction has reached
me in an unpleasant form. But leave this to me, all will be right; you
have only one thing to do, to send Hoffman to me to-morrow morning."

"Hoffman the silversmith, who lives at the corner near the senate
house?" asked Frederick.

"Precisely," replied the Count, and soon his firm unbroken step was
heard ringing in the distance.

Frederick went out on the balcony to meditate on what possible steps
his father proposed taking to overrule the opposition of Dumiger.
With all his frivolity and dissipation he was greatly ambitious, and
most anxious to sustain a reputation he had long enjoyed of having it
in his power to command success in any pursuit to which he chose to
direct his attention--that Alcibiades and Admirable Crichton character
which is the principal source of failure to many men in life. With the
exception of the hours wasted in the useless pursuit of Marguerite,
he certainly had not in the present instance been wanting in exertion,
and he also had, like many other chief burghers in Dantzic, turned his
attention to mechanical pursuits; it was the first time, he now felt
convinced, that those exertions would be all thrown away. As he looked