to deny Els admittance, but the countess
called eagerly to her, and then ordered the windows to be opened,
because she never felt comfortable unless it was light around her and
she could breathe God's pure air.

The morning breeze bore the smoke which still rose from the fire in
another direction, and thus a refreshing air really entered the room
from the garden, for the thunderstorm had refreshed all nature, and
flower beds and grass, bush and tree, exhaled a fresh odour of earth and
leafage which it was a delight to breathe.

The leech Otto, to whom the severely wounded Ulrich Vorchtel had been
carried, had just left the countess. The burns on her hands and arms had
been bandaged--nay, the old gentleman had cut out the scorched portions
of her tresses with his own hand. Cordula's energetic action had made
the famous surgeon deem her worthy of such care. He had also advised her
to seek the nursing of the oldest daughter of her host, whose invalid
wife he was attending, and she had gladly assented; for Els had
attracted her from their first meeting, and she was accustomed to begin
the day at sunrise.

"How does it happen that you neither weep nor even hang your head after
all the sorrow which last night brought you?" asked Cordula, as the
Nuremberg maiden sat down beside her bed. "You are a stranger to the
Swiss knight, and when we surprised you with him you had not come to a
meeting--I know that full well. But if so true and warm a love unites
you to young Eysvogel, how does it happen that your joyous courage is so
little damped by his father's denial and his own unhappy deed, which at
this time could scarcely escape punishment? You do not seem frivolous,
and yet--"

"Yet," replied Els with a pleasant smile, "many things have made a
deeper impression. We are not all alike, Countess, yet there is much
in your nature which must render it easy for you to understand me; for,
Countess----"

"Call me Cordula," interrupted the girl in a tone of friendly entreaty.
"Why should I deny that I am fond of you? and at the risk of making you
vain, I will betray----"

"Well?" asked Els eagerly.

"That the splendid old leech described you to me exactly as I had
imagined you," was the reply. "You were one of those, he said, whose
mere presence beside a sick-bed was as good as medicine, and so you are;
and, dear Jungfrau Els, this salutary medicine benefits me."

"If I am to dispense with the 'Countess,'" replied the other, "yo