sobbing aloud, threw herself into Els's arms.

The girls held each other in a close embrace until the first flash of
lightning and peal of thunder interrupted the conversation.

The father and daughters had been so deeply agitated that they had not
heard the storm rising outside, and the outbreak of the tempest surprised
them. The peal of thunder, which so swiftly followed the lightning, also
startled them and when, soon after, a second one shook the house with its
crashing, rattling roar, Herr Ernst went out to wake the chief packer.
But old Endres was already keeping watch among the wares entrusted to him
and when, after a brief absence, the master of the house returned, he
found Eva again clasped in her sister's arms, and saw the latter kissing
her brow and eyes as she tenderly strove to comfort her.

But Eva seemed deaf to her soothing words. Els, her faithful Els, was no
longer the betrothed bride of her Wolff; her great, beautiful happiness
was destroyed forever. On the morrow all Nuremberg would learn that Herr
Casper had broken his son's betrothal pledge, because his bride, for the
sake of a tempter, Sir Heinz Schorlin, had failed to keep her troth with
him.

How deeply all this pierced Eva's heart! how terrible was the torture
of the thought that she was the cause of this frightful misfortune!
Dissolved in an agony of tears, she entreated the poor girl to forgive
her; and Els did so willingly, and in a way that touched her father to
the very depths of his heart. How good the girls must be who, spite of
the sore suffering which one had brought upon the other, were still so
loving and loyal!