'Let him take heed, that, in meeting you, he has not met with his own,' said Herminia merrily.
'I have been longing to go to a wedding, and yours more than all, dear Herminia; for being aware of your betrothal, it was one to which I always looked forward. I shall be one of the bridesmaids, of course; and the two daughters of the Justiz-rath, and the two girls from Rheinberg, though their toilettes are odious, and Hermangilda's hair is always muffled up like a mop.'
'A golden mop, though; but, dearest cousin, how your tongue does run on! Does it never occur to you that no marriage can take place with this French war—oh, meine Gott!—before us?'
And her eyes of violet blue suddenly filled with tears as she spoke, as vague images of death and battle rose before her.
'Forgive me, Herminia. Yet I was not jesting.'
'Forgive you, dear? Yes. I may as well do so,' replied the other girl, kissing her cousin on both cheeks; 'for to you and aunt I owe the love that Heinrich bears me—the love that I bear him.'
'And which Herr Mansfeld so nearly carried off!'
'And now, as we have our prayer's to say, good-night.'
Herminia was right; the girl, indeed, a close observer, was seldom wrong in her deductions, for 'Herr Carl Pierrepont' was hopelessly smitten at last by Ernestine, who, like the lively blonde, her cousin, was rich in those charms, and mere than all, those pretty mannerisms, or tricks of women, that win and secure a man's love for ever.
Charlie was neither proud nor reserved—only a little shy at first; he had been engaged in many affaires du coeur, but a genuine attack of the tender passion was new to him. He soon found himself regularly installed and adopted, an ami du maison, with this delightful family at Frankenburg. As an Englishman, his natural love of hunting, shooting, and fishing won him the friendship of the old Count, with whom he drank as many flasks of Rhine wine and jugs of beer as he wished; but he had one blot in the eyes of the latter—he could never take cordially to saur kraut.