beautiful; and he said he would send it to Duesseldorf, where they do something or other with a whole lot of drawings, and the best one gets a prize.  If mine got a prize, Mrs. Stanhope might change her mind; and if it didn’t, I could try again.  I thought directly of the ruined castle, and how beautiful it would be to draw!  But there’s no good view of it except from the middle of the river, and it’s quite impossible for me to get there.”

To Emma there was no such word as impossible.

“Of course we can get there, Fani.  What a delightful ideal” she cried.  “We can make a trip on the steamboat, and we can see the river, and you must make a sketch of it as fast as you can.”

“Oh, yes!  I shall just get a few strokes on the paper, and then—­whizz!—­we shall be past it like a flash of lightning.  What good would that do?”

Emma was not to be discouraged.  If the only thing needful was a way to take a sketch from the river, she would set herself to find such a way.

At this moment Fani interrupted her meditations by the exclamation:  “Oh, the bell! the bell!” and she heard the ringing of the supper-bell; and the two children scampered back to the house, and joined the scattered guests, who came from every direction to meet in the great dining-room.

At the upper end of the table, spread with many delicious luxuries, sat Mrs. Stanhope, and she welcomed the children in the kindest manner.  Aunt Clarissa seated them in their places, then sat down herself at the foot of the table, and the meal began.  The guests brought wonderful appetites to the feast.  The conversation was subdued, for in Mrs. Stanhope’s presence the children’s liveliness was somewhat checked.  Elsli spoke least, and also partook least of the tempting viands.  Her abstinence attracted the attention of Fred, who sat next her, and, in spite of a warning shove which she gave him under the table, to show him that she wished to avoid observation, he exclaimed in a loud whisper:—­

“What’s the matter with you, Elsli?  Why don’t you eat?”

After supper Mrs. Stanhope led them all out upon the terrace, and they sat down in a semicircle on the garden benches.  Then she told them that she had a plan of taking them very soon on a steamboat excursion down the Rhine, as far as Cologne; where there was a remarkably fine zooelogical garden which they would all visit together.  Emma’s eyes blazed with delight, but she did not speak; her thoughts were busy, but not wholly with the animals of the garden.  Fred was delighted at the prospect; but the zooelogical garden had a powerful rival in an enormous night-moth which was humming about his head, and which he could hardly resist his desire to jump up and catch.  Such a prize it would be!  But he recollected his aunt’s advice, on the good manners of sitting still, especially in Mrs. Stanhope’s presence.  Oscar was overjoyed at the prospect of a voyage, and he bethought himself immediately of the possibility of meeting with persons much more desirable for his Society than Elsli’s baker’s boy.