cond to none in ability,
shrewdness, and kindness of heart.

Both he and his worthy wife sometimes sought her in the sphere of
occupation which consumed the lion's share of her time and strength--the
superintendence of the Schweinau hospital. True, she often let days
elapse without entering it; but if anything went wrong and her assistance
was desirable or necessary in serious cases, she remained there until
late at night, or even until the following morning.

At such times even the most distinguished visitors were sent home with
the message that Frau Christine could not leave the sick.

The Burgrave and his wife were the only persons permitted to follow her
into the hospital, and they had probably gained the privilege of speaking
to her there because they were among its most liberal supporters, and
three of their sons wore the cross of the Knights Hospitaller, and often
spent weeks there, as the rule of the order prescribed, in nursing the
sufferers.

Women also had the right to enter the hospital to be cured of the wounds
inflicted by the scourge or the iron of the executioner.

Each sufferer was to be nursed there only three days, but Frau Christine
took care that no one to whom such treatment might be harmful should be
put out. The Honourable Council was obliged, willing or unwilling, to
defray the necessary expense. The magistrate had many a battle to fight
for these encroachments, but he always found a goodly majority on the
side of the hospital and his wife. If the number of those who required
longer nursing increased too rapidly they did not spare their own fine
residence.

The hospital and the hope of being allowed to help within its walls had
brought Eva to Schweinau. The experiences of the past few days had swept
through the peace of her young soul like a tempest, overthrowing firmly
built structures and fanning glimmering sparks to flames. Since her quiet
self-examination in the room of the city clerk, she had known what she
lacked and what duty required her to become. The bond which united her to
her saint and the Saviour still remained, but she knew what was commanded
by him from whom St. Clare's mission also came, what Francis of Assisi
had enjoined upon his followers whose experiences had been like hers.

They were to strive to restore peace to their perturbed souls by faithful
toil for their brothers and sisters; and what toil better suited a feeble
girl like herself than the alleviation of her u