"By no means," replied Oswald, who shared the little sofa in the room with a tin box for dried plants, from which a stocking of blue yarn was bashfully peeping forth. "Malte can count up to five, and considerably beyond. He has a decided talent for many things, especially for arithmetic, while Bruno, who lacks that talent, remains a long way behind him."
"Yes, Providence is wise," said Albert, preparing his sepia within a little porcelain vessel; "it gives to him who is to eat turtle-soup in life, a gold spoon at his birth, and he to whom she doles out the ship-biscuit of poverty receives kindly a number of hollow teeth, so that he need not be long annoyed by his hard fare. I, for my part, received by mistake a set of excellent teeth, and thus I relish my hard-tack prodigiously,--so much, in fact, that I can never feel very angry at these empty-headed, thick-bellied children of my step-mother Nature, who are eating turtle-soup with gold spoons, and are thoroughly spoilt in the bargain. But one thing I should like, and that is, if there should turn up a claimant to the codicil in the last will of Baron Harald, who died in delirium tremens, and no doubt now sleeps in the bosom of Father Abraham."
"Then you know the sad story?" asked Oswald.
"Who does not know it?" replied Albert, lighting a cigar and seating himself on the back of his chair so that his feet rested on the seat of the chair. "Do they not publish it every year, to the infinite dismay of the haughty Anna Maria, who is as miserly as she is haughty? Still, I hardly think it has been done these last years!"
"I am only astonished," said Oswald, "that I never heard a word of the whole story till I came here, and never read anything about it in the papers."
"You know nobody reads court advertisements, proclamations, and the like, as long as he has nothing to hope and nothing to fear from such advertisements. Nor would I, in all probability, know anything more of the original idea of this defunct baron, if my father had not felt a lawyer's interest in the matter, and, I believe, himself had something to do with it. Perhaps he was engaged in forming the codicil to the testament, or in writing the latter. The proclamation was, besides, expressed in very vague terms, and amounted to little more than this: The young lady in question, or her child, male or female, if one had been born within a certain period, I do not exactly remember when, were called upon to present their claims--of course, duly authenticated in all formality since a considerable legacy had been left to them by Baron Harald, who had been 'gathered to his fathers,' probably a set of men not much better than their profligate descendant. The amount of the legacy was not mentioned. I, however, know, as many other people also know, that it amounts to nothing less than the two magnificent estates of Stantow and Baerwalde, situated on this very island. I know them very well, since I surveyed them only last summer."
"It would indeed be a charming surprise for our amiable family here if such a claimant should present himself," said Oswald.
"I should think so," replied Albert "Unfortunately there is very little prospect for it, as the bequest only continues valid twenty-five years, and then relapses into the family. Of these twenty-five years, at least twenty-two or three must have elapsed, for I am now twenty-six, and I recollect I always used to regret that I had not the prescribed age."
"Why?"
"I might have indulged at least in the charming uncertainty, whether I might not by chance be the Ivanhoe who wanders about on earth, unknown and driven from his paternal inheritance; who has to make friends with swine-herds in spite of his knightly descent, and to borrow money from dirty old Jews, until he can at last drop his incognito and lead the beautiful Rowena home as his wife, although I would, for my part, attach less importance to the last-mentioned event."