d a vivid scarlet in two places, but
the glow was brightest towards the southeastern part of the city,
where St. Klarengasse must be. Then she was overpowered by torturing
curiosity. Must she die without knowing how much the fire had injured
the newly built convent, on whose site she had enjoyed the springtime
of love, and how the good Sisters fared? It seemed impossible, and her
greatest fault for the first time proved a blessing. It drew her back
from the Dutzen pond to the city.

On reaching the Marienthurm she learned that only a barn and a cow
stable had b@en destroyed by the flames. For this trivial loss she had
suffered intense anxiety and been faithless to her resolution to seek
death, which ends all fears.

Vexed by her own weakness, she determined to go back to her employer's
house and there accept whatever fate the saints bestowed. But when
she saw a light still shining through the parchment panes in the room
occupied by the two Es, she imagined that Herr Ernst was pronouncing
judgment upon Eva. In doing so her own guilt must be recalled, and the
thought terrified her so deeply that she joined the people returning
from the fire, for whom the Frauenthor still stood open, and allowed
the crowd to carry her on with them to St. Kunigunde's chapel in St.
Lawrence's church; and when some, passing the great Imhof residence,
turned into the Kotgasse, she followed.

Hitherto she had walked on without goal or purpose, but here the
question where to seek shelter confronted her; for the torchbearers who
had lighted the way disappeared one after another in the various houses.
Deep darkness suddenly surrounded her, and she was seized with terror.
But ere the last torch vanished, its light fell upon one of the brass
basins which hung in front of the barbers' shops.

The barber! The woman whom she had seen in the stocks was the widow of
one, and the house where she granted the lovers the meeting, on whose
account she had been condemned to so severe a punishment, was in the
Kotgasse, and had been pointed out to her. It must be directly opposite.
The thought entered her mind that the woman who had endured such a
terrible punishment, for a crime akin to her own, would understand
better than any one else the anguish of her heart. How could the widow
yonder refuse her companion in guilt a compassionate reception!

It was a happy idea, but she would never have ventured to rouse the
woman from her sleep, so she must wait. But