In his disappointment, the latter
retained certain family papers which the Baron had intrusted to his
keeping. The ring was a gift, and he wore it in remembrance of his
benefactor.
Wandering about, Micawber-like, in hopes that something might turn
up, he reached Posen, and there either met or heard of the Polish
Count, Ladislas Kasincsky, who was seeking a tutor for his only
son. His accomplishments, and perhaps, also, a certain
aristocratic grace of manner unconsciously caught from the Baron
von Herisau, speedily won for him the favor of the Count and
Countess Kasincsky, and emboldened him to hope for the hand of the
Countess' sister, Helmine ----, to whom he was no doubt sincerely
attached. Here Johann Helm, or "Jean," a confidential servant of
the Count, who looked upon the new tutor as a rival, yet adroitly
flattered his vanity for the purpose of misleading and displacing
him, appears upon the stage. "Jean" first detected Otto's passion;
"Jean," at an epicurean dinner, wormed out of Otto the secret of
the Herisau documents, and perhaps suggested the part which the
latter afterwards played.
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