r the examination of
the Bishops. Finding that I could not get the child, I followed the
book. Rubi was about, and I begged him to challenge the lad to a trial
of strength, which he was ready enough to accept. He laid down the book
on the window-ledge of a house, and--I do not think he picked it up
again."

"You stole it, sinner!" laughed Stephen.

"Why not?" inquired Countess with a smile. "I took it for its lawful
owner, from one that had no right to it. You do not call that theft?"

"Could you read it?"

"I could learn to do anything for Rudolph."

"But how did you ever find him?"

"We were living at Dorchester. Regina came to stay with me in the
winter, and she told me that you were to be examined before the King and
the bishops, and on what day. All that day I watched to see you pass
through the town, and having prepared myself to save the child if I
possibly could, when I caught a glimpse of Guelph, who was among the
foremost, I followed in the rabble, with a bottle of broth, which I kept
warm in my bosom, to revive such as I might be able to reach. Ermine, I
looked in vain for you, for Gerhardt or Agnes. But I saw Rudolph, whom
Adelheid was leading. The crowd kept pressing before me, and I could
not keep him in sight; but as they went out of Dorchester, I ran
forward, and came up with them again a little further, when I missed
Rudolph. Then I turned back, searching all the way--until I found him."

"And your husband let you keep him?" asked Ermine in a slightly
surprised tone.

"My oath let me keep him," said Countess in a peculiar voice.

"Are you a widow?" responded Ermine pityingly.

"Very likely," was the short, dry answer.

Ermine asked no more. "Poor Countess!" was all she said.

"Don't pity me for _that_," replied the Jewess. "You had better know.
We quarrelled, Ermine, over the boy, and at my own request he divorced
me, and let me go. It was an easy choice to make--gold and down
cushions on the one hand, love and the oath of God upon the other. I
never missed the down cushions; and I think the child found my breast as
soft as they would have been. I sold my jewels, and set up a little
shop. We have had the blessing of the Holy One, to whom be praise!"

"That is a Jewish way of talking, is it not?" said Stephen, smiling. "I
thought you were a Catholic now."

"I am a Christian. I know nothing about `Catholic'--unless the idols in
the churches are Catholic, and with them I