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In the Fire of the Forge — Volume 03 by Georg Ebers
page 43 of 67 (64%)
prevented it. The countess was already standing in the courtyard.

After Eva had given her a hasty glance she again looked for the maid, but
Katterle had already vanished in the darkness. This grieved her; she had
neglected something which might have saved the girl, to whom she was
warmly attached, from some imprudent act. But while attracted by the
strange appearance of the countess she had forgotten the other.

Cordula had probably just left her couch, for she wore only a plain dress
tucked up very high, short boots, which she probably used in hunting, and
a shawl crossed over her bosom; another was wound round her head in the
fashion of the peasant women who brought their goods to market on cold
winter days. No farmer's wife could be more simply clad, and yet--Eva
was forced to admit it--there was something aristocratic in her firm
bearing.

Her companions were her father's chaplain and the equerry who had grown
grey in his service. Both were trying to dissuade her. The former
pointed to a troop of women who were following the chief of police and
some city constables, and said warningly: "Those are all wanton queans,
whom the law of this city compels to lend their aid in putting out fires.
How would it beseem your rank to join these who shame their sex----
No, no! It would be said to-morrow that the ornament of the house of
Montfort had----"

"That Countess Cordula had used her hands in extinguishing the fire," she
interrupted with gay self-confidence. "Is there any disgrace in that?
Must my noble birth debar me from being numbered among those who help
their neighbours so far as lies in their power? If any good is
accomplished here, those poor women yonder will make it no worse by
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