but he could not help thinking of the
young witch who was said to have resembled her, and a presentiment told
him that she was lost to him.

The confirmation of this foreboding was not delayed, for in a tone whose
repellent sternness startled him, she angrily burst forth: "What should
trouble me? It as ill becomes you to question me with such looks and
queries as it pleases me." Wolf, in bewilderment, assured her that she
had seemed to him especially charming in her gracious gentleness. If
anything had happened to cloud her fearless joyousness, let her forget
it, for the matter now to be considered concerned the happiness of two
human lives.

That was what she was saying to herself, Barbara replied in a more
friendly tone, and, with newly awakened hope, the young knight informed
her that the time had now come when, without offending against modesty,
he might call himself a "made man."

With increasing eagerness and confidence he then told her what the
councillor had offered. Without concealing her father's scruples, he
added the assurance that he felt perfectly secure against the temptations
of which there would certainly be no lack while he was in the service of
a Protestant magistracy.

"And when you, devout, pure, true girl, stand by my side," he concluded
with an ardour which surprised Barbara in this quiet, reserved man, "when
you are once mine, my one love, then I shall conquer the hardest obstacle
as if it were mere pastime, then I would not change places with the
Emperor, for then my happiness would be----"

Hitherto she had silently permitted him to speak, but now her cheeks
suddenly flamed with a deep flush, and she warmly interrupted: "You
deserve to be happy, Wolf, and I could desire nothing more ardently than
to see you glad and content; but you would never become so through me.
How pale you grow! For my sake, do not take it so much to heart; it
grieves me to see you suffer. Only believe that. It cuts me to the heart
to inflict such great sorrow upon one so loyal, good, and dear, who
values me so much more than I deserve."

Here Wolf, deeply agitated, wildly called her name, and besought her not
to cast aside so harshly the wealth of love and fidelity which he
offered.

His own anguish of soul, and the pain inflicted by the cruel blow which
crushed his dearest hopes, robbed him of fortitude and calmness. With
tears in his eyes, he threw himself on his knees before her and gazed
into her face with a