154 THK YOUN<; WIDOW OF BREMEN. 



Bauerstrasse, met his mother leaning on the arm of Adolphe Brauer, 

 they separated hastily, with fearful looks, the moment they saw him. 

 Hermann merely gave his mother one stern glance ; then springing on 

 the steward, he seized him by the throat. Adolphe quailed before his 

 fury ; indeed, the steward was rather of a crafty nature than of boiling 

 courage; and when his young master flung him from him, and ordered 

 him home, he obeyed without a word. Hermann then, with a proud 

 cold air, took his mother's arm, who looked more dead than alive ; and 

 both vanished from the terrified gaze of Peter Sriick. 



After this the fair widow was not often seen abroad ; until an event 

 occurred which filled the whole neighbourhood with wonder and 

 discussion. The very day when young Hermann should have returned 

 to Jena, Adolphe Brauer vanished as completely as if the earth had 

 gaped and swallowed him. The affrighted widow, on being asked by 

 the servants, who waited for the steward's usual household orders, 

 whether she knew what had become of him, merely shook her head and 

 wept. She begged those most in her confidence to avoid mentioning 

 the name of Brauer, for that her son had taken so deep a hatred to him, 

 that the sound of it excited him to phrenzy. Hermann, however, soon 

 made it known that he had sent Adolphe away, and that he would 

 never return. He recalled the late steward, and stayed a day past the 

 time he had intended, to welcome him home. All this time he was 

 unusually merry ; and set off for Jena in high spirits. 



But a short interval had elapsed ere I remarked, with sorrow, that the 

 widow's health and spirits grew worse from day to day. Whilst I was 

 pondering over the propriety of writing to her son in Jena, an old man 

 arrived suddenly in Bremen, begging to be directed to the widow Von 

 Korper. He said he was Ludwig Brauer, the father of Adolphe her 

 steward, and that he had come all the way from Weimar to see his son. 

 When he heard that Adolphe had departed, some months before, no 

 one knew whither, he displayed the greatest agitation and grief. In 

 the end, a chapter of minute inquiries was addressed to Hermann, the 

 only person of whom intelligence was to be sought; and until the 

 answer could come from Jena, the restless and anxious stranger asked 

 all the neighbours around for news of his son. But Adolphe Brauer 

 was of a distant and reserved disposition, and had mentioned his 

 designs to none. Yet some tidings of him were gleaned ; though these 

 were after all but scanty. Once more had Peter Snick, the tailor, been 

 playing the listener. 



None, save himself, had seen Adolphe on the day when he was sud- 

 denly missed. But at a very early hour, not long after sunrise, Peter, 

 by some strange chance, happened to be passing the corner of this very 

 wall here, at the back of the Widow Von Korper's residence a lane very 

 little frequented. Suddenly he came up to young Hermann, who stood 

 in his morning gown and slippers. The young man was in a high fury ; 

 one hand grasped the collar of Adolphe Brauer, and the other held a 

 stout oaken cudgel. What more passed, Peter Snick knew not. He 

 feared being punished as an eaves-dropper, and sneaked back silently to 

 Bremen. 



Nothing would satisfy old Ludwig, but a visit to the very place where 

 his son had been seen for the last time. Peter led him ; and to the asto- 

 nishment of all present, the old man, in sitting down on a stone, covered 

 by high weeds, to rest, whilst Snick acted over his story on the very 



