seen the young girl, whose charms
were developing into such rare beauty, wedded to some good man; but now
she rejoiced in the idea that Eva was summoned to rule over the nuns in
the neighbouring cloister some day as abbess, in the place of her
sister-in-law Kunigunde. Her own days, she knew, were numbered, but where
could her child more surely find the happiness she desired for her than
with the beloved sisters of St. Clare, whose home she and her husband had
helped to build?

Els had concealed from her parents what she fancied she had discovered,
for any anxiety injured the invalid, and no one could anticipate how her
irritable father might receive the information of her fear. On the other
hand, she could confide her troubles without anxiety to Wolff, her
betrothed husband. He was wise, prudent, loved Eva like a sister, and in
exchanging thoughts with him she always discovered the right course to
pursue; but though she expected him so eagerly and confidently, he did
not come.

When, in the afternoon, Eva returned home, her whole manner expressed
such firm, cheerful composure that Els began to hope she might have been
mistaken. The undemonstrative yet tender affection with which she met her
mother, too, by no means harmonised with her fears.

How lovely the young girl looked as she sat on a low stool at the head of
the invalid's couch and, with her mother's emaciated hand clasped in
hers, told her all that she had seen and experienced the evening before!
To please the beloved sufferer, she dwelt longer on the description of
the gracious manner of the Emperor Rudolph and his sister to her and her
father, the conversation with which the Burgrave had honoured her, and
his son's invitation to dance. Then for the first time she mentioned
Heinz Schorlin, whom she had found a godly knight, and finally spoke
briefly of the distinguished foreign nobles and ladies whom he had
pointed out and named.

All this reminded the mother of former days and, in spite of the warning
of watchful Els not to talk too much, she did not cease questioning or
recalling the time when she herself attended such festivals, and as one
of the fairest maidens received much homage.

It had been a good day, for it was long since she had enjoyed so much
quiet in her own home. The von Montforts, she told Eva, had set off
early, with a great train of knights and servants, to ride to Radolzburg,
the castle of the Burgrave von Zollern. Her father thought th