himself to
condemning with harsh words her perverse spirit and worldly nature, and
threatening her with the vengeance of Heaven.

Once, after repeating the Song of the Sun, as she had done just now, he
asked whether she, too, felt that nothing save the peace of the cloister
would afford the possibility of feeling the greatness and love of the
Most High as warmly and fully as this majestic song commands us to do.

Then, summoning her courage, she assured him of the contrary. Though but
a simple girl, she, who had often been the guest of the abbess, felt the
grandeur and glory of God as much more deeply in the world and during the
fulfilment of the hardest duties which life imposed than with the Sisters
of St. Clare, as the forests and fields were wider than the little
convent garden.

The old man, in a rage, upbraided her with being a blinded fool, and
asked her whether she did not know that the world was finite and limited,
whilst what the convent contained was eternal and boundless.

Another time he had wounded her so deeply by his severity that she had
found it impossible to restrain her tears. But he had scarcely perceived
this ere he repented his harshness. Nothing but love ought to move his
heart on the eve of a union with Him whom he had just called Love itself,
and with earnest and tender entreaties he besought Eva to forgive him for
the censure which was also a work of love. Throughout the day he had
treated her with affectionate, almost humble, kindness.

All these things returned to Eva's thoughts as she left her grey-haired
patient.

He was standing on the threshold of the other world, and it was easy for
her to think of him kindly, deeply as he had often wounded her. Nay, her
heart swelled with grateful joy because she had been so patient and
suffered nothing to divert her from the arduous duty which she had
undertaken in nursing the old man, who regarded her with such disfavour.

A light had been brought into Biberli's room too. When Eva entered with
glowing cheeks she found the Swabians still sitting beside his couch. The
door leading into the chamber of the dying man had been closed long
before, yet the notes of pious litanies came from the adjoining room.
Lady Schorlin noticed her deep emotion with sympathy, and asked her to
sit down by her side. Maria offered her own low stool, but Eva declined
its use, because she would soon be obliged to ride back to the city. She
pressed her hand upon her bur