er hand for the
'Rai' never entered her head, but he told her voluntarily that he had
invited Countess Cordula for the Polish dance solely in consequence of
the Burgravine's command, but now that he was permitted to linger at her
side he meant to make up for lost time.

He kept his word, and was by no means content with the 'Rai'; for, after
the young Duchess Agnes had summoned him to a 'Zauner', and during
its continuance again talked with him far more confidentially than
the modest Nuremberg maiden could approve, he persuaded Eva to try
the 'Schwabeln' with him also; and though she had always disliked such
dances she yielded, and her natural grace, as well as her quick ear for
time, helped her to catch the unfamiliar steps without difficulty.
While doing so he whispered that even the angels in heaven could have
no greater bliss than it afforded him to float thus through the hall,
clasping her in his arm, while she glanced up at him with a happy look
and bent her little head in assent. She would gladly have exclaimed
warmly: "Yes, indeed! Yet the Burgravine says that danger threatens me
from you, you dear, kind fellow, and I should do well to avoid you."

Besides, she felt indebted to him. What would have befallen her here in
his absence! Moreover, it gave her a strange sense of pleasure to gaze
into his eyes, allow herself to be borne through the wide hall by his
strong arm, and while pressed closely to his side imagine that his
swiftly throbbing heart felt the pulsing of her own. Instead of injuring
her, wishing her evil, and asking her to do anything wrong, he certainly
had only good intentions. He had cared for her as if he occupied the
place of her own brother who fell in the battle of Marchfield. It
would have given him most pleasure--he had said so himself--to dance
everything with her, but decorum and the royal dames who kept him in
attendance would not permit it. However, he came to her in every pause
to exchange at least a few brief words and a glance. During the longest
one, which lasted more than an hour and was devoted to the refreshment
of the guests, he led her into a side room which had been transformed
into a blossoming garden.

Seats were placed behind the green birch trees--amid whose boughs hung
gay lamps--and the rose bushes which surrounded a fountain of perfumed
water, and Eva had already followed the Swiss knight across the
threshold when she saw among the branches at the end of the room the