e to understand that, if her lover had not done himself
a mischief, it had been her intent to question him that very day as to
whether he was in earnest with his love-pledges, or would rather that
she should give him back his ring and his word. All this she spoke
without a tear or a sigh, with steadfast purpose; and already I began,
for my part, to doubt of the truth of her love; and I told her this
plainly. Thereupon she clasped me to her, and while the tears gathered
and sparkled in her great eyes, expounded to me all the matter; and in
truth it was all I should myself have said in her place. She, of simple
birth, would enter the circle of her betters on sufferance, and her
new friends would, of a certainty, not do her more honor than her own
husband. On his manner of treating her therefore would depend what
measure of respect she might look for as his wife. And so long as their
promise to marry was a secret, she would have him show, whether to her
alone or before all the world, that he held her consent as of no less
worth than that of the wealthiest and highest born heiress.

All this she spoke in hot haste while her cheeks glowed red. I saw the
blue veins swell on her pure brow, and can never forget the image of her
as she raised her tearful eyes to Heaven and pressing her hands on
her panting bosom cried: "To go forth with him to want or death is as
nothing! But never will I be led into shame, not even by him."

When presently I left her, after speaking many loving words to her, and
holding her long in my arms, she was ready to forgive him; but she held
to this: "Not a word, not a glance, not a kiss, until Herdegen had vowed
that yesterday's offence should be the first and last she should ever
suffer."

How clearly she had apprehended the matter!

Albeit she little knew how deeply her beloved had sinned against the
truth he owed her. They say that Love is blind, and so he may be at
first. But when once his trust is shaken the bandage falls, and the
purblind boy is turned into a many-eyed, sharp-sighted Argus.

CHAPTER IX.

Every one was ready to nurse the little maid who called herself "little
Katie." But as to Herdegen, I was compelled for the time to say nothing
to him of what Ann required of him, for he lay sick of a fever. He was
faithfully tended by Eppelein, the son of a good servant of our father's
who had lost his life in waiting on his master when stricken with the
plague. Eppelein had indeed g