ith his luckless idea of an early
marriage would not prove too difficult.

CHAPTER IV.

Eva Ortlieb had been borne home from the ball in her sedan chair with a
happy smile hovering round her fresh young lips.

It still lingered there when she found her sister in their chamber,
sitting at the spinning wheel. She had not left her suffering mother
until her eyes closed in slumber, and was now waiting for Eva, to hear
whether the entertainment had proved less disagreeable than she feared,
and--as she had sent her maid to bed--to help her undress.

One glance at Eva told her that she had perhaps left the ballroom even
more reluctantly than she entered it; but when Els questioned her so
affectionately, and with maternal care began to unfasten the ribbon
which tied her cap, the young girl, who in the sedan chair had
determined to confess to no one on earth what so deeply moved her heart,
could not resist the impulse to clasp her in her arms and kiss her with
impetuous warmth.

Els received the caress with surprise for, though both girls loved each
other tenderly, they, like most sisters, rarely expressed it by tangible
proofs of tenderness. Not until Eva released her did Els exclaim in
merry amazement: "So it was delightful, my darling?"

"Oh, so delightful!" Eva protested with hands uplifted, and at the same
time met her sister's eyes with a radiant glance.

Yet the thought entered her mind that it ill beseemed her to express so
much pleasure in a worldly amusement. Her glance fell in shame, and she
gently continued in that tone of self-compassion which was by no means
unfamiliar to the members of her family. "True, though the Emperor is
so noble, and both he and the Burgravine were so gracious to me, at
first--and not only for a brief quarter of an hour, but a very long
time I could feel no real pleasure. What am I saying? Pleasure! I
was indescribably desolate and alone among all those vain, bedizened
strangers. I was like a shipwrecked sailor washed ashore by the waves
and surrounded by people whose language is unfamiliar."

"But half Nuremberg was at the ball," her sister interrupted. "Now you
see the trouble, darling. Whoever, like you, remains in seclusion and
mounts a tall tree to be entirely alone, will be deserted; for who would
be kind-hearted enough to learn to climb for your sake? But it seems
that afterwards one and another----"

"Oh!" Eva interrupted, "if you think that any of your friends gave m