st supply the place of all others, no one
would care for her. Then she wished at least to be sure of the sympathy,
the friendship of this good loyal man.

There were still many things for her to do, but to seek Wolf she left
them all, even the visit to Frau Lerch, whom she wished to ask to devote
herself exclusively to her service in Prebrunn.

Full of anxious cares, lofty anticipations, and the ardent desire to
conciliate Wolf, she took the by no means lengthy walk to the Hiltners.
Not until she reached the doctor's house did it occur to her that she
had forgotten to execute her father's commission and relieve Ursel's
anxiety about her darling.

How did it happen that, if any affair of her own interested her, she
always forgot what she owed to others?

Barbara was obliged to wait in the broad, lofty hall of the syndic's
house for the maid-servant, who announced her; and the stout man with
the big head, who had seized the knocker just before she entered, shared
her fate.

He was now leaning with bowed head against the wall, both hands clasped
under his beardless chin, and might have been taken for a monk repeating
his prayers. The long, brown doublet fastened around his hips by a
Hemp rope, instead of a girdle, made him resemble a Franciscan. But his
thick, flaxen hair lacked the tonsure, the rope the rosary, and he wore
coarse leather shoes on his large feet.

Barbara fancied that she had seen this strange figure somewhere, and
he, too, must have recognised her, for he bowed when she looked at him.
There was not the slightest movement of the body except the small eyes,
which wandered restlessly around the spacious room as if they missed
something.

The inquiry what he found lacking here was already rising to Barbara's
lips when the syndic's wife came toward her, preceded by her daughter
Martina, who, radiant with joy at seeing the ardently admired singer in
her own house, kissed her with fervent affection.

The mother merely extended her hand to Barbara, yet the whole manner of
the gentle, reserved woman showed that she was a welcome guest.

Frau Sabina loved and understood music, still enjoyed singing hymns with
the members of her household, and had done everything in her power to
aid the establishment of the Convivium musicum and foster its progress.

Interest in music had also united her to Dr. Martin Luther, her
husband's friend, and mane a composition of the Wittenberg ecclesiastic
had first been perfo