?"

"It is for little bare feet in Salingen," she replied, laying the
finished stocking on the table and stroking it with both hands as a
work of love.

"I have heard of your beneficence," said Frank. "You knit, sew, and
cook for the poor people. You are a refuge for all the needy and
distressed. How good in you!"

"You exaggerate, Herr Frank. I do a little sometimes, but not more than
I can do with the house-work, which is scarcely worth mentioning. I
make no sacrifice in doing it; on the contrary, the poor give me more
than I give them; for giving is to every one more pleasant than
receiving."

"To every one, Fraeulein?"

"To every one who can give without denying herself."

"But you are accustomed also to visit the sick, and the hovels of
poverty are certainly not attractive."

"Indeed, Herr Frank, very attractive," she answered quickly. "The
thanks of the poor sick are so affecting and elevating that one is paid
a thousand times for a little trouble."

Frank let the subject drop. Angela did not give charities from pride or
the gratification of vanity, as he had been prepared to assume, but
from natural goodness and inclination of the heart. He looked at the
beautiful girl who sat before him industriously sewing, and was almost
angry at his failure to detect a fault in her pure nature.

"Do you always adorn the statue of the Virgin on the mountain?" said he
after a pause.

"No; not now. The month of our dear Lady is over. I always think with
pleasure of the happy hours when in the convent we adorned her altar
with beautiful flowers."

"You must have a great reverence for Mary, or you would not ascend the
mountain daily."

"I admire the exalted virtues of Mary, and think with sorrow of her
painful life on earth; and then, a weak creature needs much her
powerful protection."

"Do you expect, Miss Angela, by such attention as you show the statue
to obtain protection of the saint?"

"No, I do not believe that. The adorning of the pictures of saints
would be idle trifling if the heart wandered far from the spirit of the
saints. Our church teaches, as you know, that the real, true veneration
of the saints consists in imitating their virtues."

Frank sat reflecting. The examination and probation were thoroughly
disgusting to him. Siegwart appeared in the garden, and came with quick
steps to the arbor. His countenance was agitated and his eyes glowed
with indignation. Without speaking a word, he drank of