sinful of his daughter, it was needful that she should submit. He
repeated, in stronger terms, the assurance that she would be
protected in the endeavour to do right, and the Divine promises which
he quoted from the Latin Scriptures gave some comfort to the niece,
who understood them, while they impressed the aunt, who did not.
There was always the hope that, whether the young lady died or
recovered, the conclusion of her illness would be the term of
Christina's stay at Adlerstein, and with this trust Johanna must
content herself. The priest took leave, after appointing with
Christina to meet her in the confessional early in the morning before
mass; and half the night was spent by the aunt and niece in preparing
Christina's wardrobe for her sudden journey.

Many a tear was shed over the tokens of the little services she was
wont to render, her half-done works, and pleasant studies so suddenly
broken off, and all the time Hausfrau Johanna was running on with a
lecture on the diligent preservation of her maiden discretion, with
plentiful warnings against swaggering men-at-arms, drunken
lanzknechts, and, above all, against young barons, who most assuredly
could mean no good by any burgher maiden. The good aunt blessed the
saints that her Stina was likely only to be lovely in affectionate
home eyes; but, for that matter, idle men, shut up in a castle, with
nothing but mischief to think of, would be dangerous to Little Three
Eyes herself, and Christina had best never stir a yard from her
lady's chair, when forced to meet them. All this was interspersed
with motherly advice how to treat the sick lady, and receipts for
cordials and possets; for Johanna began to regard the case as a sort
of second-hand one of her own. Nay, she even turned it over in her
mind whether she should not offer herself as the Lady Ermentrude's
sick-nurse, as being a less dangerous commodity than her little