rang out of bed and
went to her room; Susannah was sleeping so soundly that she did not even
hear her. Much relieved Katharina crept back to bed; but in the morning
the worst had happened: Susannah could no longer leave her bed; she was
feverish, and on her lips, the very lips which had kissed her child's
infected hair, there were indeed, between her nose and mouth, the first
terrible, unmistakable spots.

The leech came and confirmed the fact.--The house was closed and barred.

The physician and Susannah, who was still in full possession of her
senses, wished and insisted that Katharina should withdraw to the
gardener's house, but she refused with defiant obstinacy, saying she
would rather die with her mother than leave her.

Quite beside herself she threw herself on the sick woman, and kissed
the spots on her mouth to divert the poison into her own blood; but the
physician angrily pulled her away, and the sufferer reproved her with
tears in her eyes which spoke her fervent affection.

She was now allowed to nurse her mother. Two nuns came to her
assistance, and said, not only to the rich widow but behind her back,
that they had never seen so devoted and loving a daughter. Even Bishop
John, who did not shrink from entering the houses of the sick to give
them spiritual consolation, praised Katharina's conduct; and he, who had
hitherto regarded the water-wagtail as no more than a bright, restless
child, treated her with respect, talked to her as to a grown-up
person, and answered her questions--which for the most part referred to
Paula--gravely and fully.

The prelate, who was full of admiration for Thomas' daughter, told
Katharina how, to save her lover, she had taken a crime upon herself
which deprived her of every claim to mercy. The Syrian girl was only a
Melchite, but to take another's guilt, out of love, was treading indeed
in the footsteps of Christ, if ever anything was. At this Katharina
shrugged her shoulders, as though to say: "Do you think so much of that?
Could not I gladly have done the same?"

The priest saw this and admonished her kindly to be on her guard against
spiritual pride, though she had indeed earned the right to believe
herself capable of the sternest devotion, and did not cease to set an
example of filial and Christian love.

He departed; and Katharina, to whom every word in praise of her
behavior to her mother, whom her sin had brought to her death-bed, was a
torturing mockery, felt th