"Ha! This changes the complexion of the affair. How dost thou know this?"
"From her own lips. The secret escaped her, under the warmth and sincerity of feeling that the late events so naturally excited."
"And Sigismund!--he has thy approbation?--for I will not suppose that one like thy daughter yielded her affections unsolicited."
"He has--that is--he has. There is what the world will be apt to call an obstacle, but it shall count for nothing with me. The youth is not noble."
"The objection is serious, my honest friend. It is not wise to tax human infirmity too much, where there is sufficient to endure from causes that cannot be removed. Wedlock is a precarious experiment, and all unusual motives for disgust should be cautiously avoided.--I would he were noble."
"The difficulty shall be removed by the Emperor's favor. Thou hast princes in Italy, too, that might be prevailed on to do us this grace, at need?"
"What is the youth's origin and history, and by what means has a daughter of thine been placed in a situation to love one that is simply born?"
"Sigismund is a Swiss, and of a family of Bernese burghers, I should think, though, to confess the truth, I know little more than that he has passed several years in foreign service, and that he saved my daughter's life from one of our mountain accidents, some two years since, as he has now saved thine and mine. My sister, near whose castle the acquaintance commenced, permitted the intercourse, which it would now be too late to think of prohibiting. And, to speak honestly, I begin to rejoice the boy is what he is, in order that our readiness to receive him to our arms may be the more apparent. If the young fellow were the equal of Adelheid in other things, as he is in person and character, he would have too much in his favor.--No, by the faith of Calvin!--him whom thou stylest a heretic--I think I rejoice that the boy is not noble!"
"Have it as thou wilt," returned the Genoese whose countenance continued to express distrust and thought, for his own experience had made him wary on the subject of doubtful or ill-assorted alliances; "let his origin be what it may, he shall not need gold. I charge myself with seeing that the lands of Willading shall be fairly balanced: and here comes our hospitable host to be witness of the pledge."
Roger de Blonay advanced upon the terrace to greet his guests, as the Signor Grimaldi concluded. The three old men continued their walk for an hour longer, discussing the fortunes of the young pair, for Melchior de Willading was as little disposed to make a secret of his intentions with one of his friends as with the other.