“I knew you would come back, Countly Grace, I knew you would come back!” the good fellow shouted in my ear fifty times. As for Andrea he settled down instantly to his old ways, and the very evening after our arrival I heard him cursing at matters German, and saying pretty things to the castle wenches almost in the same breath. I was without social equal or companion at the Regenstein, but I had no intention of remaining idle and solitary for long. I very soon got out of Adolf the condition of my neighbors at Blankenburg. “Yes, the old Graf died hugging a crucifix, yet roaring oaths to the very last. He has alienated about everything he could to the nuns at Quedlinburg. I suppose he thought they would find some rat-hole for him whereby he could escape the Master Devil. Poor young Graf Moritz will have to live very quiet, with only a few greasy varlets and not at all in the state worthy of his line.” “And his sister?” “Oh! she is to enter the convent. Her father commanded it, betwixt his groans, and Abbess Theckla has been urging it on for a long day. I hear Graf Moritz has been trying to dissuade her, but unless a gallant ritter seeks her hand soon” (the rascal looked at me shrewdly), “he won’t succeed. No vows yet have been taken, but after all there has always got to be a bridal for a gentle lady--whether the bridegroom be a gay nobleman or only the Church.” “Her aunt is very importunate, then?” “Yes. My Freude, who married the Blankenburg seneschal, says that the poor young lady is constantly filled with strange tales:--how nuns are often favored, as Saint Katherine was, who had Christ for a lover, how she and Our Lord used to walk up and down the room together, repeating their sacred ‘hours.’” This being the case, I congratulated myself on having returned to the North in the very nick of time. I had not the least intention of a ceremonious wooing. It was enough that Ilsa would make a high-minded and worthy consort, whatever be my life and projects. The exact nature of my sentiments towards her, I was at no pains to analyze. I had in mind a precept of Seneca’s, urging passion for a mere sweetheart, but deliberate and well-tempered affection for a wife. I therefore with very little delay arranged to have Moritz visit me at the Regenstein, and our interview was in every sense satisfactory. “Verily, Walter,” he swore as our talk ended, “there is no man in broad Germany I would rather call ‘brother’ than you; and you know our Wittenberg kinsfolk will not be stingy with the gulden. You may consider the thing settled.” “I have still to have your sister’s actual consent.” “Oh! of course we must go through the form of consulting her. Ilsa is not a fool. Aunt Theckla has filled her with fine stuff about ‘saints and angels’ at the convent, but that will vanish in thin air when the church bell begins to ring for a bridal.” “Well--” I suggested, “how will it be? Will you make my request for me, and receive her answer?”