awaiting her! Her heart shrank before the doubt awakened by the flood of
light pouring from the windows of the imperial residence; the doubt
whether her lover would not avoid her if--ah, had it only been possible!
--if he should meet her among the guests yonder; whether the eloquent
Father Ignatius, who had followed him, might not already have won from
the knight a vow compelling him to turn from her and summon all his
strength of will to forget her.

But, no! He could no more renounce his love than she hers. She would
not, dare not, let such terrible thoughts torture her now.

Heinz was far away, and the fate of her love would be decided later.
The cause of her presence here was something very different, and the
conviction that it was good, right, and certain of his approval,
dispelled the pain that had overpowered her, and raised her courage.

Unspeakably hard trials lay behind her, and harder ones must, perhaps,
yet be vanquished. But she no longer needed to fear them, for she felt
that the strength which had awakened within her after she became
conscious of her love was still sustaining and directing her, and would
enable her to govern matters which she could not help believing that she
herself would be too weak to guide to their goal. She felt freed from
her former wavering and hesitation, and as formerly in the modest house
of the Beguines, now in the stately citadel she realised that, in sorrow
and severe trial, she had learned to assert her position in life by her
own strength. Her father, whom she was to meet presently, would
find little outward change in her, but when he had perceived the
transformation wrought in the character of his helpless "little saint"
it would please him to hear from her how wonderfully her mother's last
prophetic words were being fulfilled.