knew, had approved of Herbert at the bank; and Herbert had shown
that he could be steady; therefore he was to be taken into their
family, paying his annual subsidy, instead of being left with
strangers at the boarding-house. All this was very simple to her.
She assisted in mending his linen, as she did her father's; she
visited his room daily, as she visited all the others; she took
notice of his likings and dislikings as touching their table
arrangement,--but by no means such notice as she did of her
father's; and without any flutter, inwardly in her imagination or
outwardly as regarded the world, she made him one of the family. So
things went on for a year,--nay, so things went on for two years
with her, after Herbert Onslow had come to the Ludwigs Strasse.

But the matter had been regarded in a very different light by
Herbert himself. When the proposition had been made to him, his
first idea had been that so close a connection with, a girl so very
pretty would be delightful. He had blushed as he had given in his
adhesion; but Madame Heine, when she saw the blush, had attributed
it to anything but the true cause. When Isa had asked him as to his
wants and wishes, he had blushed again, but she had been as ignorant
as her mother. The father had merely stipulated that, as the young
Englishman paid for his board, he should have the full value of his
money, so that Isa and Agnes gave up their pretty front room, going
into one that was inferior, and Hatto was put to sleep in the little
closet that had been papa's own peculiar property. But nobody
complained of this, for it was understood that the money was of
service.

For the first year Herbert found that nothing especial happened. He
always fancied that he was in love with Isa, and wrote some poetry