CHAPTER V.

ON OAK-RIDGE.


When Dr. Stein received from his medical brother on the Rhine a letter,
asking him to look out for a suitable summer lodging for Mrs. Stanhope
and her little invalid daughter, he naturally turned the matter over to
his wife, who of course took her sister into consultation. The first
thing that suggested itself was the unused second story of Mr. Bickel's
great house. The doctor's wife immediately went to make inquiries, but
she met with no encouragement. Mrs. Bickel declared that she could not
spare any rooms; in the first place, she needed them herself; and then
she wondered how any one could think of such a thing as that she should
let strangers into her beautifully furnished apartments, which no one
had ever yet occupied. Mrs. Stein hastened to apologize; she only asked
for a friend, and meant no harm by asking; but it was so difficult to
find lodgings in Buchberg, and this was a case of great need. Mrs.
Bickel could not get over it, however, and long afterwards from time to
time she would break out to her husband, "Do you suppose that doctor's
wife thought we built this house to let?" and Mr. Bickel, equally
indignant, would add, "And to people that we know nothing whatever
about; nor even whether they would pay their rent!"

Mrs. Stein, disappointed in her first trial, bethought herself, as she
turned away from the Bickel mansion, of a certain new house that had
just been built on Oak-ridge by a man who occupied only the lower
floor; the upper story standing empty, waiting for the owner's son, who