assurance that we should have no reason to be dissatisfied with him after he had known me a little better, and found me as worthy as he wished and hoped.
I was now obliged to relate the whole history of the shawl, of the finding of which it appears the servant who announced my arrival had already informed him, but which, however, both Liesli and myself had entirely forgotten, lost as we both had been in the subject of ourselves. Liesli had not observed me, nor had she heard my cries in the crowd; and had I not ventured as I did, upon the rash and sudden act which left her shawl in my grasp, most probably I should have left St. Petersburgh without having seen her—thus, on such slender threads, hangs so often our happiness or misery!
Henceforward I was a daily visitor at the residence of the count. It is an old and well known fact, that a grandfather can rarely refuse any thing to his granddaughter, and, indeed, not in all the fifty-one governments of Russia could such a yielding, doating, and excellent grandfather be found as was the old count. Liesli was the idol of his heart; whatever she wished was granted, nay, had she even demanded the lives of the many thousand peasants and vassals contained on his vast estates, he could not have refused her his consent.
After eight weeks had thus flown past, the old count one morning entered the room with a smiling countenance. He had just received letters by an extraordinary courier from the hermit, who had communicated in them the most satisfactory and complete information respecting myself, my circumstances, situation, and character. It concerned the happiness of his beloved ward, and the hermit had accordingly laid aside his cowl, and in the garb of a private gentleman had set out on a visit to my native country, to collect in person every information respecting my family and connections.
It was easy to be perceived, from the agreeable expression of the old count’s features, that the hermit’s enquiries had turned out to my advantage. At first he began to joke, and pretended to hint, that from the contents of the letters he had
