"Oh, Doctor Fritz, he is the kindest-hearted master! he is so frank and
so pleasant!" cried the dwarf, with hands clasped. "He has but one
fault."

"And what may that be?"

"He has no ambition."

"How do you prove that?"

"Why, he might have been anything he pleased. Think of a Nideck, one of
the very noblest families in Germany! He had but to ask to be made a
minister or a field-marshal. Well! he desired nothing of the sort. When
he was no longer a young man he retired from political life. Except that
he was in the campaign in France at the head of a regiment he raised at
his own expense, he has always lived far away from noise and battle;
plain and simple, and almost unknown, he seemed to think of nothing but
his hunting."

These details were deeply interesting to me. The conversation was of its
own accord taking just the turn I wished it to take, and I resolved to
get my advantage out of it.

"So the count has never had any exciting deeds in hand?"

"None, Doctor Fritz, none whatever; and that is the pity. A noble
excitement is the glory of great families. It is a misfortune for a noble
race when a member of it is devoid of ambition; he allows his family to
sink below its level. I could give you many examples. That which would be