d, "I am a poor man. I have nothing but my sword, my
ruined tower yonder, and honour. But they are yours. Will you take them
with my heart?"

She lifted her blue eyes to his, full of truth and trust. "I will be
yours," she murmured; "yours and none other's till death."

Young Kuno left Rheinstein that afternoon, his heart beating high with
hope and happiness. The blood coursing through his veins at a gallop
made him spur his charger to a like pace. But though he rode fast his
brain was as busy as his hand and his heart. He must, in conformity with
Rhenish custom, send as an embassy to Gerda's father one of his most
distinguished relations. To whom was he to turn? There was no one but
old Kurt, his wealthy uncle, whom he could send as an emissary, and
although the old man had an unsavoury reputation, he decided to confide
the mission to him. Kurt undertook the task in no kindly spirit, for he
disliked Kuno because of his virtuous life and the circumstance that he
was his heir, whom he felt was waiting to step into his shoes. However,
he waited next day upon Gerda's father, the Lord of Rheinstein, and was
received with all the dignity suitable to his rank and age. But when his
glance rested upon the fair and innocent Gerda, such a fierce desire to
make her his arose in his withered breast that when she had withdrawn he
demanded her hand for himself. To her father he drew an alluring picture
of his rank, his possessions, his castles, his gold, until the old man,
with whom avarice was a passion, gave a hearty consent to his suit,
and dismissed him with the assurance that Gerda would be his within the
week.

The clatter of hoofs had hardly died away when the Lord of Rheinstein
sought his daughter's bower, where she sat dreaming of Kuno. In honeyed
words the old man described the enviable position she would occupy as
the spouse of a wealthy man, and then conveyed to her the information
that Kurt had asked him for her hand. Gerda, insulted at the mere
thought of becoming the bride of such a man, refused to listen to the
proposal, even from the lips of her father, and she acquainted him with
her love for Kuno, whom, she declared, she had fully resolved to marry.
At this avowal her father worked himself into a furious passion, and
assured her that she should never be the bride of such a penniless
adventurer. After further insulting the absent Kuno, and alluding in
a most offensive manner to his daughter's lack of discernment a