How clearly she had apprehended the matter!

Albeit she little knew how deeply her beloved had sinned against the
truth he owed her. They say that Love is blind, and so he may be at
first. But when once his trust is shaken the bandage falls, and the
purblind boy is turned into a many-eyed, sharp-sighted Argus.




CHAPTER IX.

Every one was ready to nurse the little maid who called herself "little
Katie." But as to Herdegen, I was compelled for the time to say nothing
to him of what Ann required of him, for he lay sick of a fever. He was
faithfully tended by Eppelein, the son of a good servant of our father's
who had lost his life in waiting on his master when stricken with the
plague. Eppelein had indeed grown up in our household, among the horses;
even as a lad he had by turns helped Herdegen in his sports, and rendered
him good service, and had ever shown him a warmer love than that of a
hireling.

It fell out one day that my brother's best horse came to harm by this
youth's fault, and when Herdegen, for many days, would vouchsafe no word
to him the lad took it so bitterly to heart that he stole away from the
house, and whereas no one could find him, we feared for a long time that
he had done himself a mischief. Nevertheless he was alive and of good
heart. He had passed the months in a various life; first as a crier to a
wandering quack, and afterwards, inasmuch as he was a nimble and likely