best and most warmhearted among the successors of Christ,
of whom the Pope himself said that he would hear even those whom God
would not! Moreover, there was no plant, no flower, no cry of any animal
in the woods which was not familiar to the Abbess Kunigunde. Like St.
Francis; she distinguished in everything which the ear heard and the
eye beheld voices that bore witness to the goodness and greatness of the
Most High. The abbess felt bound by ties of sisterly affection to every
one of God's creatures, and taught Eva to love them, too, and, as a
person who treats a child kindly wins the mother's heart also, to obtain
by love of his creatures that of the Creator.

Others had blamed her because she held aloof from her sister's friends
and amusements. They were ignorant of the joys of solitude, which her
aunt and her saint had taught her to know.

She had endured interruptions and reproaches, often humbly, oftener
still, when her hot blood swept away her self-control, with vehement
indignation and tears; but meanwhile she had always cherished the secret
thought that the time would come when she, too, would be permitted, at
one with God and the Saviour, to enjoy the raptures of eternal bliss.
She loved her invalid mother and, often as his sudden fits of passion
alarmed her, she was tenderly attached to her father; yet it would have
seemed to her an exquisite delight to be permitted to imitate the saints
and sever all bonds which united her to the world and its clogging
demands. She had long been yearning for the day when she would be
allowed to entreat the abbess to grant her admittance to the convent,
whose doors would be flung wide open for her because, next to the
brothers Ebner, who founded it, her parents had contributed the largest
sum for its support.

But she was obliged to wait patiently, for Els, her older sister, would
probably soon marry her Wolff, and then it would be her turn to nurse
her invalid mother. Her own heart dictated this, and the abbess had
said: "Let her enter eternity clasping your hand before you begin, with
us, to devote all your strength to securing your own salvation. Besides,
you will thereby ascend a long row of steps nearer to your sublime
goal."

But Eva would far rather have given her hand now, aloof from the world,
to the Most High in an inviolable bond. What marvel that, with such a
goal in view, she was deeply reluctant to enter the gay whirl of a noisy
ball!

With serious repugn