At last, my dear Baron, we are returned to ***. I have brought back my pupil in his nineteenth year, with his principles sufficiently strengthened to resist the alluring arts which love was preparing to practise upon him. Stolina, still unmarried, lived with her father upon the banks of the lake. She had found means to avoid and put off every proposed match, during our absence, under various pretences, and chiefly under that of a weak and worn out constitution. The day after our arrival, the Prince received the following note: ‘I am dying – Alas! may I flatter myself with the hopes of seeing, before I expire, my benefactor and my protector! If this favour is refused me, my last moments will be as grievous as my life has been unhappy. Stolina.’

The Prince, with tears in his eyes, brought me this note, without allowing me to speak he said; no objections of yours will prevent my going immediately to Alexis Stezin's house. – Do you think me, interrupted I, capable of dissuading you from an act of benevolence? O, my friend! said the Prince, warmly embracing me … I desire only, replied I, that a Physician, in whom you put the greatest trust, may accompany us. He fixed upon Dr. Walter; we set off as soon as he came, and found Stolina in an elbow-chair, with all the outward appearance of a sick person, pale and languishing, but more bewitching and beautiful than ever. Her agitation of joy at the sight of the Prince was too evident. Her colour went and came, and she burst into tears. She attempted to rise from her chair, but fell back. The Prince, equally affected, seated himself, muttering some incoherent words. He then told her mother he had brought a Physician, and ordered him in. During this discourse, I earnestly examined Stolina's looks, and plainly perceived her displeasure at it. We left the Doctor with her, and withdrew to another apartment.