Wolff can never have longed for you more ardently. My father found
little time to give me. As soon as he saw me take my place in the Polish
dance he went with Uncle Pfinzing to the drinking room, and I did not see
him again till he came to bring me home. He had asked Fran Nutzel to
look after me, but her Kathrin was taken ill, as I heard when we were
leaving, and she disappeared with her during the first dance. So I moved
forlornly here and there until he--Heinz Schorlin--came and took charge
of me."

"He? Sir Heinz Schorlin?" asked Els in surprise, a look of anxious
suspense clouding her pretty, frank face. "The reckless Swiss, whom
Countess Cordula said yesterday was the pike in the dull carp pond of
the court, and the only person for whom it was worth while to bear the
penance imposed in the confessional?"

"Cordula von Montfort!" cried Eva scornfully. "If she speaks to me I
shall not answer her, I can tell you. My cheeks crimson when I think of
the liberty----"

"Never mind her," said her sister soothingly. "She is a motherless
child, and therefore unlike us. As for Heinz Schorlin, he is certainly a
gallant knight; but, my innocent lambkin, he is a wolf nevertheless."

"A wolf?" asked Eva, opening her large eyes as wide as if they beheld
some terrible object. But she soon laughed softly, and added quietly:
"But a very harmless wolf, who humbly changes his nature when the right
hand strokes him. How you stare at me! I am not thinking of your
beloved Wolff, whom you have tamed tolerably well, but the wolf of
Gubbio, which did so much mischief, and to which St. Francis went forth,
accosted him as Brother Wolf, and reminded him that they both owed their