What right had Els to distrust him?  A godly knight played no base game with the chosen lady of, his heart, and that, yes, that she certainly was, since she had named her colour to him.  Nothing should separate them.  She needed him for her happiness as much as she did light and air.  Hitherto she had longed for bliss in another world, but she was so young she probably had a long life before her, and what could existence on earth offer if robbed of the hope of his possession?

The newly awakened part of her nature demanded its rights.  It would never again allow itself to be forced into the old slumber.

If her sister came back and boasted of having driven away the dangerous animal forever, she would show her that she had a different opinion of the knight, and would permit no one to interpose between them.  But, while still pondering over this plan, the door of the sick-room was softly opened and her father beckoned to her to follow him.

Silently leading the way through the dusky corridor, no longer illumined by the moonlight, he entered his daughter’s room before her.  The lamp, still burning there, revealed the agitated face of her sister who, resting her chin on her hand, sat on the stool beside the spinning wheel.

Eva’s courage, which had blazed up so brightly, instantly fell again.

“Good heavens!  What has happened?” she cried in terror; but her father answered in a hollow tone: 

“For the sake of your noble sister, to whom I pledged my word, I will force myself to remain calm.  But look at her!  Her poor heart must be like a graveyard, for she was doomed to bury what she held dearest.  And who,” he continued furiously, so carried away by grief and indignation as to be unmindful of his promise to maintain his composure, “who is to blame for it all, save you and your boundless imprudence?”

Eva, with uplifted hands, tried to explain how, unconscious of her acts, she had walked in her sleep down the stairs and out of the house, but he imperiously cut her short with: 

“Silence!  I know all.  My daughter gave a worthless tempter the right to expect the worst from her.  You, whom we deemed the ornament of this house, whose purity hitherto was stainless, are to blame if people passing on the street point at it!  Alas! alas!  Our honour, our ancient, unsullied name!”

Groaning aloud, the father struck his brow with his clenched hand; but when Els rose and passed her arm around his shoulders to speak words of consolation, Eva, who hitherto had vainly struggled for words, could endure no more.

“Whoever says that of me, my father,” she exclaimed with flashing eyes; scarcely able to control her voice, “has opened his ears to slander; and whoever terms Heinz Schorlin a worthless tempter, is blinded by a delusion, and I call him to his face, even were it my own father, to whom I owe gratitude and respect—­”

But here she stopped and extended her arms to keep off the deeply angered man, for he had started forward with quivering lips, and—­she perceived it clearly—­was already under the spell of one of the terrible fits of fury which might lead him to the most unprecedented deeds.  Els, however, had clung to him and, while holding him back with all her strength, cried out in a tone of keen reproach, “Is this the way you keep your promise?”