ndered the most menial service, merely to be near
them and to be permitted to show that the desire to prove her gratitude
had become the object of her life.

When, with good counsel for the future, he dismissed her from the chief
magistrate's room, he had asked her where she was to be found in case
he should have anything to say to her. It seemed as though, from mingled
alarm and joy, her heart would stop beating. If her lodgings, instead of
an insignificant tavern, had been her own palace, she would gladly have
opened all its gates to him, yet a feverish thrill ran through her limbs
at the thought that he might seek her among her vagabond companions, and
ask in return for his kindness what he would never have presumed to seek
had she been the child of reputable parents, yet which, with mingled
anger and happiness, she resolved not to refuse.

During the day and the night when she expected his visit, she had become
aware that she, who had never cared for any man save for the gifts he
bestowed, was fired with love for Lienhard. Such ardent yearning could
torture only a loving heart, yet what she felt was very unlike the love
with which she was familiar in songs, and had seen in other girls; for
she by no means thought with jealous rancour of the woman to whom he
belonged, body and soul--his beautiful wife. It rather seemed to
her that she was his, and he would no longer be the same if he were
separated from her, nay, as if her very love was hers also. When she
heard a noise outside of her little room she started, and eagerly as she
yearned to see him, blissful as she thought it must be to sink upon his
breast and offer him her lips to kiss, the bold ropedancer, who never
cared for the opinions of others, could not shake off, even for a
moment, the fear of wronging the fair wife who had a better right to
him. Instead of hating her, or even wishing to share the heart of the
man she loved with his bride, she shrank from the approaching necessity
of clouding her young happiness as though it were the direst misfortune.
Yet she felt that its prevention lay, not in her own hands, but in those
of Fate. Should it please Destiny to lead Lienhard to her and inspire
him with a desire for her love, all resistance, she knew, would be
futile. So she began to repeat several paternosters that he might remain
away from her. But her yearning was so great that she soon desisted,
and again and again went to the window with a fervent wish tha