ght blue eyes, the mistress of her art,
seemed to their owners worthy to empty, she had by no means forgotten
Lienhard. This wrought mischief to many a gay gentleman of aristocratic
lineage in the great imperial and commercial cities; for it afforded
Kuni special pleasure to try her power upon Lienhard's equals in rank.
When she went on with the company, more than one patrician had good
reason to remember her with regret; for she, who shared the lion's
portion of her earnings with her companions or flung it to the poor, was
insatiably avaricious toward these admirers.

The weaker she found many of them, the higher, in her opinion, rose the
image of him who had made her feel his manly strength of resistance so
cruelly. His stern, inexorable nature seemed to her worthy of hate, yet
for three whole years the longing for him scarcely left her heart at
peace an hour.

During this whole period she had not met him. Not until after she had
come to Augsburg, where Loni's company was to give several performances
before the assembled Reichstag, did she see him again. Once she even
succeeded in attracting his gaze, and this was done in a way which
afforded her great satisfaction. His beautiful wife, clad in costly
velvet robes, was walking by his side with eyes decorously downcast; but
he had surely recognised her--there was no doubt of that. Yet he omitted
to inform his wife, even by a look, whom he had met here. Kuni watched
the proud couple a long time, and, with the keen insight of a loving
heart, told herself that he would have pointed her out to Frau
Katharina, if he did not remember her in some way--either in kindness or
in anger.

This little discovery had sufficed to transfigure, as it were, the rest
of the day, and awaken a throng of new hopes and questions.

Even now she did not desire to win Frau Katharina's husband from her.
She freely acknowledged that the other's beauty was tenfold greater
than her own; but whether the gifts of love which the woman with the
cloudless, aristocratic composure could offer to her husband were not
like the beggar's pence, compared with the overflowing treasure of
ardent passion which she cherished for Lienhard, was a question to
which she believed there could be but a single answer. Was this lady,
restricted by a thousand petty scruples, as well as by her stiff, heavy
gala robes, a genuine woman at all? Ah! if he would only for once cast
aside the foolish considerations which prevente