, and Wolf, with an anxious
mind, followed him into a waiting room, now empty, near the staircase.

The deep seriousness in the keen eyes of the learned confessor, which
could look gentle, indulgent, and sometimes even merry, revealed that
he desired to discuss some matter of importance; but the very first
question which the priest addressed to him restored the young man's
composure.

The confessor merely desired to know what took him to the house of the
man who must be known to him as the soul of the evangelical innovations
in his native city, and the friend of Martin Luther.

Wolf now quietly informed him what offer Dr. Hiltner, as syndic of
Ratisbon, had made him in the name of the Council.

"And you?" asked the confessor anxiously.

"I declined it most positively," replied Wolf, "although it would have
suited my taste to stand at the head of the musical life in my native
city."

"Because you prefer to remain in the service of her Majesty Queen Mary?"
asked De Soto.

"No, your Eminence. Probably I shall soon leave the position near
her person. I rather feared that, as a good Catholic, I would find it
difficult to do my duty in the service of an evangelical employer."

"There is something in that. But what led the singer--you know whom I
mean--to the same house?"

Wolf could not restrain a slight smile, and he answered eagerly: "The
young lady and I grew up together under the same roof, your Eminence,
and she came for no other purpose than to bid me farewell. A lamb that
clings more firmly to the shepherd, and more strongly abhors heresy,
could scarcely be found in our Redeemer's flock."

"A lamb!" exclaimed the almoner with a slight touch of scorn. "What are
we to think of the foe of heresy who exchanges tender kisses with the
wife of the most energetic leader of Protestantism?"

"By your permission, your Eminence," Wolf asserted, "only the daughter
offered her her lips. She and her mother made the singer's acquaintance
at the musical exercises established here by the Council. Music is
the only bond between them."--"Yet there is a bond," cried De Soto
suspiciously. "If you see her again before your departure, advise her,
in my name, to sever it. She found a friendly welcome and much kindness
in that house, and here at least--tell her so--only one faith exists. A
prosperous journey, Sir Knight."

The delay caused by this conversation induced Wolf to quicken his pace.
It had grown late, and Erasmus Eckha