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 tribe of robbers might break in now, and he would not notice them. Truly, he sins against the Lord in grieving so over his father’s death; he should thank the Almighty for calling the old man without long illness; he was a burden to all of us, and most of all to him.”

With this reasoning the stewardess marched with an important air into the servants’ hall to tell the wandering musician just what he deserved. But she had hardly stepped inside the hall and cast a glance at the newcomer, when the flow of words not flattering to him disappeared from her lips and the sharp question on her ready tongue turned into a quiet, polite address.

Instead of the shabby, bold-faced fellow she had expected to see, she beheld a young man of as grave and earnest a countenance as if he had the experience of a long lifetime behind him. And at the same time his appearance was so aristocratic that she was no longer surprised at her servant’s obedience to him. A harp hung on his shoulder more as an ornament than as the instrument with which he earned