seemed to stick in his throat.

"Compose yourself!" counselled the priest. "Keep your childhood in
your memory! It is a light in such days."

"It is over," said Konrad, controlling his sobs. "Father, that memory
does not comfort me; it accuses me more heavily. How can such
misfortune come from such blessing? If only I dared kneel now before
my God--and thank Him that she did not live to see this day."

"Well, well!" said the Father. "Other mothers had different
experiences with other sons."

"I would sacrifice everything too for the sake of our dear Lady,"
muttered Konrad.

"That's right," returned the Father. "Now tell me more. Quite young,
then, you lived among strangers, eh?"

He uttered confusedly: "After the deaths of my father and mother I was
apprenticed. To a joiner. That was a splendid time. Only I read a
great deal too much to please the master--all sorts of things, and
dreamed about them. And I didn't wish to do anything wrong, at least
so I imagined. The master called me a stupid visionary, and gave me
the sack. Then came a period of wandering--Munich, Cologne, Hamburg.
I was two years with a master at Cologne. If only I had stayed with
him! He didn't want to let me go--and there was a daughter. Then to
Hamburg. That was bad luck. I was introduced into a Society for the
protection of the people against traitors. To be a saviour, to risk
one's life! It came to me very slowly, quite gradually, what was the