rstorm had refreshed all nature, and flower
beds and grass, bush and tree, exhaled a fresh odour of earth and leafage
which it was a delight to breathe.

The leech Otto, to whom the severely wounded Ulrich Vorchtel had been
carried, had just left the countess. The burns on her hands and arms had
been bandaged--nay, the old gentleman had cut out the scorched portions
of her tresses with his own hand. Cordula's energetic action had made the
famous surgeon deem her worthy of such care. He had also advised her to
seek the nursing of the oldest daughter of her host, whose invalid wife
he was attending, and she had gladly assented; for Els had attracted her
from their first meeting, and she was accustomed to begin the day at
sunrise.

"How does it happen that you neither weep nor even hang your head after
all the sorrow which last night brought you?" asked Cordula, as the
Nuremberg maiden sat down beside her bed. "You are a stranger to the
Swiss knight, and when we surprised you with him you had not come to a
meeting--I know that full well. But if so true and warm a love unites you
to young Eysvogel, how does it happen that your joyous courage is so
little damped by his father's denial and his own unhappy deed, which at
this time could scarcely escape punishment? You do not seem frivolous,
and yet--"

"Yet," replied Els with a pleasant smile, "many things have made a deeper
impression. We are not all alike, Countess, yet there is much in your
nature which must render it easy for you to understand me; for,
Countess----"

"Call me Cordula," interrupted the girl in a tone of friendly entreaty.
"Why should I deny that I am fond of you? and at the risk of making you
vain, I will betray----"

"Well?" asked Els eagerly.

"That the splendid old leech described you to me exactly as I had
imagined you," was the reply. You were one of those, he said, whose mere
presence beside a sick-bed was as good as medicine, and so you are; and,
dear Jungfrau Els, this salutary medicine benefits me."

"If I am to dispense with the 'Countess,'" replied the other, "you must
spare me the 'Jungfrau.' Nursing you will give me all the more pleasure
on account of the warm gratitude----"

"Never mind that," interrupted Cordula. "But please look at the bandage,
beneath which the flesh burns and aches more than is necessary, and then
go on with your explanation."

Els examined the countess's arm, and then applied a household remedy
whose use she h