CONTENTS.

CHAPTER
I.[Shadows of Coming Events]
II.[Two Discontented Fathers]
III.[Hidden Springs]
IV.[Gossip]
V.[Marriage]
VI.[A Farewell Glass and a Death-bed]
VII.[Unexpected]
VIII.[At The Tomb]
IX.[Cloudy Weather at Eichhof]
X.[Found and Lost]
XI.[Thea Rounds her First Promontory]
XII.[Another Promontory Comes In Sight]
XIII.[A Period put to a Long Row of Figures]
XIV.[The Mistress of Eichhof and her Guests]
XV.[In Berlin]
XVI.[Revelations and their Consequences]
XVII.[The Consequences begin to Appear]
XVIII.[An Eventful Day]
XIX.[The Shadows Gather]
XX.[Dr. Nordstedt]
XXI.[Summer Days]
XXII.[A Crisis]
XXIII.[A Short Chapter, with a Far Glance into the Future]
XXIV.[Per Crucem ad Lucem]
[CONCLUSION]

THE EICHHOFS.

CHAPTER I.

[SHADOWS OF COMING EVENTS.]

In a box of the Berlin Opera-House sat three young officers. All wore the uniform of the same regiment of the Guards, and all three were directing their opera-glasses towards the same opposite box.

"The girl has just got home from boarding-school, and will have a dot of half a million in cash," observed Lieutenant von Hohenstein, dropping his opera-glass.

"The deuce she will! No end of pity that I am such an infernal aristocrat,--it would be such a fine morsel for a poor younger son," said the younger of the Von Eichhof brothers, with a laugh, as he stroked his blonde moustache. "She has a good figure, too, and any amount of fire in her eyes."