verpowered by torturing curiosity.
Must she die without knowing how much the fire had injured the newly
built convent, on whose site she had enjoyed the springtime of love, and
how the good Sisters fared? It seemed impossible, and her greatest fault
for the first time proved a blessing. It drew her back from the Dutzen
pond to the city.

On reaching the Marienthurm she learned that only a barn and a cow stable
had b@en destroyed by the flames. For this trivial loss she had suffered
intense anxiety and been faithless to her resolution to seek death, which
ends all fears.

Vexed by her own weakness, she determined to go back to her employer's
house and there accept whatever fate the saints bestowed. But when she
saw a light still shining through the parchment panes in the room
occupied by the two Es, she imagined that Herr Ernst was pronouncing
judgment upon Eva. In doing so her own guilt must be recalled, and the
thought terrified her so deeply that she joined the people returning from
the fire, for whom the Frauenthor still stood open, and allowed the crowd
to carry her on with them to St. Kunigunde's chapel in St. Lawrence's
church; and when some, passing the great Imhof residence, turned into the
Kotgasse, she followed.

Hitherto she had walked on without goal or purpose, but here the question
where to seek shelter confronted her; for the torchbearers who had
lighted the way disappeared one after another in the various houses. Deep
darkness suddenly surrounded her, and she was seized with terror. But ere
the last torch vanished, its light fell upon one of the brass basins
which hung in front of the barbers' shops.

The barber! The woman whom she had seen in the stocks was the widow of
one, and the house where she granted the lovers the meeting, on whose
account she had been condemned to so severe a punishment, was in the
Kotgasse, and had been pointed out to her. It must be directly opposite.
The thought entered her mind that the woman who had endured such a
terrible punishment, for a crime akin to her own, would understand better
than any one else the anguish of her heart. How could the widow yonder
refuse her companion in guilt a compassionate reception!

It was a happy idea, but she would never have ventured to rouse the woman
from her sleep, so she must wait. But the first grey light of dawn was
already appearing in the eastern horizon on the opposite side of the
square of St. Lawrence, and perhaps Frau Ratze