obedient to his lady's command, as beseemed a knight, had gone away.
This soothed her anxiety, and with a sigh she went back to bed.

But the longing to look out into the street again was so strong that she
yielded to the temptation; yet, ere she reached the window, she summoned
the strength of will which was peculiar to her and, lying down, once more
closed her lids, with the firm resolve to see and hear nothing. As she
had not shut her eyes the night before and, from dread of the ball, had
slept very little during the preceding one, she soon, though the moon was
shining in through the parted curtains, lapsed into a condition midway
between sleep and waking. Extreme fatigue had deadened consciousness,
yet she fancied that at times she heard the sound of footsteps on the
pavement outside, and the deep voices of men.

Nor was what she heard in her half-dozing state, which was soon followed
by the sound slumber of youth, any delusion of the senses.




CHAPTER VII.

The moon found something in front of the Ortlieb house worth looking at.
Rarely had she lighted with purer, brighter radiance the pathway of the
mortals who excited her curiosity, than that of the two handsome young
men who, at a moderate interval of time, passed through the Frauenthor,
and finally entered the courtyard of the Ortlieb residence almost at the
same instant.

Luna first saw them pace silently to and fro, and delighted in the