mefaced
maid if I called him back to me? He is happy--and he will still be happy
for many long, long years amid his reckless companions; if the time
should ever come of which you speak, most worshipful lady, even then he
will care no more for Ann, bloomless and faded, than for the threadbare
bravery in which he once arrayed himself. As for me and my love, warmly
as it will ever glow in my breast, so long as I live and breathe, he
will never need it in the life of pleasure in which he suns himself. It
is no vain imagining that I have made my goal, and if I am to bring joy
to the wretched I must seek others than he."

"Right well," said my aunt, "if so be that your love is no worthier nor
better than his."

And from the unhappy maid's bosom the words were gasped out: "It is
verily and indeed true and worthy and deep; never was truer love..."

"Never?" replied my aunt, looking at her enquiringly. "Have you not
read of the love of which the Scripture speaketh? Love which is able and
ready to endure all things."

And the words of the Apostle came into my mind which the Carthusian
sister had graven on our memories, burning them in, as it were, as being
those which above all others should live in every Christian woman's
heart; and whereas I had hitherto held back as beseemed me, I now came
forward and said them with all the devout fervor of my young heart,
as follows: "Charity suffereth long and is kind; Charity envieth not;
Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up; seeketh not her own, is
not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; beareth all things, believeth all
things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

While I spoke Ann, panting for breath, fixed her eyes on the ground,
but my aunt rehearsed the words after me in a clear voice: "beareth all
things, believeth all things, hopeth and endureth all things." And she
added right earnestly; "therefore do thou believe and hope and endure
yet longer, my poor child, and tell me in all truth: Does it seem to you
a lesser deed to lead back the sinner into the way of righteousness and
bliss in this world and the next, than to give alms to the beggar?"

Ann shook her head, and my aunt went on: "And if there is any one--let
me repeat it--who by faithful love may ever rescue Herdegen, albeit he
is half lost, it is you. Come, come," and she signed to her, and Ann did
her bidding and fell on her knees by her, as she had done erewhile in
the forest-lodge. The elder lady kissed