ature,
and clung with the same loyalty hitherto evinced for his master to her
whom he now regarded as his future mistress.

This she must and should be, because already life seemed to him no longer
desirable without her voice. Never had he heard one whose pure tones
penetrated the heart more deeply. And had Heinz been permitted to hear
her talk with the Dominicans, he would have given up his wish to renounce
the world and, instead of entering a monastery, striven with every power
of his being to win this wonderful maiden, for whom his heart glowed with
such ardent love. When she persisted in her refusal to take the veil
because she had learned that it is possible in the world to live at peace
with one's self, feel in harmony with God, and follow in love and
fidelity the footsteps of the Saviour, she had heard many a kindly word
of admonition, many a sharp reproof, and many a fierce threat from the
Dominicans, but she did not allow herself to be led astray, and
understood how to defend herself so cleverly and forcibly that his heart
dilated, and he asked himself how a girl of eighteen could maintain her
ground so firmly, so shrewdly, and with such thorough knowledge of the
Scriptures, against devout, highly educated men--nay, the most learned
and austere.

The Abbess Kunigunde had also appeared sometimes at his bedside, and
Eva's conversations with her revealed to him that she had obtained her
armour against the Dominicans from the Sisters of St. Clare. True, at
first the former had laboured with the utmost earnestness to win her back
to the convent, but two days before she had met two Dominicans, and the
evident efforts of one who seemed to hold a distinguished position among
his brother monks to gain Eva for his own order and withdraw her from the
Sisters of St. Clare, whom he believed to be walking in paths less
pleasing to God, had so angered the abbess that she lost the power, and
perhaps also the will, to maintain her usual composure. Therefore,
yesterday she had opposed her niece's wish to remain in the world less
strongly than before; nay, on parting with her she had clasped her in her
arms and, as it were, restored her freedom by admitting that various
paths led to the kingdom of heaven.

This was balm to the convalescent's wounds; for he cherished no wish more
ardent than to accompany his master to the marriage altar, where Eva
would give her hand to Heinz Schorlin as her faithful husband, and the
abbess's l