figures passing to and fro across the kitchen.

At last his sister passed, with the light shining on her golden
plaits, and he risked a low murmur of "Marie! Marie!"

She stopped an instant, and then passed on; but after a few minutes,
she returned, and came up the ladder with her finger on her lips to
enjoin silence. He needed no caution, being instinctively aware that
if one parental duty could be more obvious than another to the
tradesman, it would be that of crushing such folly as Friedrich was
displaying by timely severity. The boy crept back to bed, and Marie
came after him.

There are unheroic moments in the lives of the greatest of men, and
though when the head is strong and clear, and there is plenty of light
and good company, it is highly satisfactory and proper to smile
condescension upon female inanity, there are times when it is not
unpleasant to be at the mercy of kind arms that pity without asking a
reason, and in whose presence one may be foolish without shame. And it
is not ill, perhaps, for some of us, whose acutely strung minds go up
with every discovery, and down with every doubt, if we have some
humble comforter (whether woman or man) on whose face a faithful
spirit has set the seal of peace--a face which in its very
steadfastness is "as the face of an angel."

Such a face looked down upon Friedrich, before which fancied horrors
fled; and he wound his arms round Marie's neck, and laid down his
head, and was comfortable, if not sublime.

After a dozen or so of purposeless kisses, she spoke--