"I am very happy, Marie."

"I am very glad, dearest."

"Dost thou think father will let the Burgomaster give me a good
education, Marie?"

"Yes, dear, I am sure he will."

"It is very kind," said Friedrich, thoughtfully; "for I know he wants
me for the business. But I will help him some day. And, Marie, I will
be a good man, and when I am very rich I will give great alms to the
poor."

"Thou wilt be a good man before thou art a rich one, I trust," said
his dogmatic sister. "We are accepted in that we have, and not in that
we have not. Thou hast great talent, and wilt give it to the Lord,
whether He make thee rich or no. Wilt thou not, dearest?"

"What dost thou mean, Marie? Am I never to write anything but hymns?"

"No, no, I do not mean that," she said. "I am very ignorant and cannot
rightly explain it to thee, little brother. But genius is a great and
perilous gift; and, oh, Friedrich! Friedrich! promise me just
this:--that thou wilt never, never write anything against the faith or
the teaching of the Saviour, and that thou wilt never use the graces
of poetry to cover the hideousness of any of those sins which it is
the work of a lifetime to see justly, and to fight against manfully.
Promise me just this."