s trying, with coaxing graciousness, to soften his
indignation by gaily relating how she had come here and what had detained
her and her companions. But Ernst Ortlieb, who would usually have been
very susceptible to such an advance from a young and aristocratic lady,
could not now succeed in smoothing his brow. In his excitement he was not
even able to grasp the meaning of the story she related merrily, though
with well-feigned contrition. While listening to her with one ear, he was
straining the other to catch what Sir Seitz Siebenburg was saying to his
father-in-law, Casper Eysvogel.

He gathered from Countess Cordula's account that she had succeeded in
playing some bold prank in connection with Els and the Swiss knight Heinz
Schorlin, and the words "the Mustache" was whispering to his
father-in-law-the direction of his glance betrayed it--also referred to
Els and the Swiss. But the less Herr Ernst heard of this conversation the
more painfully it excited his already perturbed spirit.

Suddenly his pleasant features, which, on account of the lady at his
side, he had hitherto forced to wear a gracious aspect, assumed an
expression which filled the reckless countess with grave anxiety, and
urged the terrified Els, who had not turned her eyes from him, to a hasty
resolution. That was her father's look when on the point of an outbreak
of fury, and at this hour, surrounded by these people, he must not allow
himself to yield to rage; he must maintain a tolerable degree of
composure.

Without heeding the young Burgrave Eitelfritz or Sir Boemund Altrosen,
who were just approaching her, she forced her way nearer to her father,
He still maintained his self-control, but already the veins on his brow
had swollen and his short figure was rigidly erect. The cause of his
excitement--she had noticed it--was some word uttered by Seitz
Siebenburg. Her father was the only person who had understood it, but she
was not mistaken in the conjecture that it referred to her and the Swiss
knight, and she believed it to be base and spiteful.

In fact, after his father-in-law had told him that Ernst Ortlieb thought
his house was on fire, "the Mustache," in reply to Herr Casper's enquiry
how his son's betrothed bride happened to be there, answered scornfully:
"Els? She did not hasten hither, like the old man, to put the fire out,
but because one flame was not enough for her. Wolff must know it
to-morrow. By day the slender little flame of honour