Eva was breathing heavily when she emerged from the forest and stopped to wait until Sister Perpetua had finished her prayer in the chapel and overtook her.  Her heart was heavy, and when, in the meadow beyond the woods, the heat of the sun, which was already approaching the zenith, made itself felt, it seemed as if she had left the untroubled happiness of childhood behind her in the green thicket.  Yet she would not have missed this forest walk at any price.  She knew now that she had no rival save the one whom Heinz ought to love no less than she.  Whether they both decided in favour of the world or the cloister, they would remain united in love for her and her divine Son.

CHAPTER III.

Outside the courtyard of the Ortlieb mansion Eva saw Biberli going towards the Frauenthor.  He had been with Els a long time, giving a report as frankly as ever.  The day before he said to Katterle:  “Calm yourself, my little lamb.  Now that the daughters need you and me to carry secret messages, the father will leave us in peace too.  A member of the Council would be like the receiver of stolen goods if he allowed a man whom he deemed worthy of the stocks to render him many services.”

And Herr Ernst Ortlieb really did let him alone, because he was forced to recognise that Biberli and Katterle were indispensable in carrying on his daughter’s intercourse with Wolff.

Els had forgiven the clever fellow the more willingly the more consoling became the tidings he brought her from her betrothed bridegroom.  Besides, she regarded it as specially fortunate that she learned through him many things concerning Heinz Schorlin, which for her sister’s sake she was glad to know.

True, it would have been useless trouble to try to extort from the true and steadfast Biberli even a single word which, for his master’s sake, it would have been wiser to withhold, yet he discussed matters patiently, and told her everything that he could communicate conscientiously.  So, when Eva returned, she was accurately informed of all that had befallen and troubled the knight the day before.

She listened sympathisingly to the servant’s lamentation over the marvellous change which had taken place in Heinz since his horse was killed under him.  But she shook her head incredulously at Biberli’s statement that his master seriously intended to seek peace in the cloister, like his two older sisters; yet at the man’s animated description of how Father Benedictus had profited by Sir Heinz’s mood to estrange him from the world, the doubt vanished.

Biberli’s assurance that he had often seen other young knights rush into the world with specially joyous recklessness, who had suddenly halted as if in terror and known no other expedient than to change the coat of mail for the monk’s cowl, reminded her of similar incidents among her own acquaintances.  The man was right in his assertion that most of them had been directed to the monastery by monks of the Order of St. Francis, since the name of the Saint of Assisi and the miracles he performed had become known in this country also.  Whoever believed it impossible to see the gay Sir Heinz in a monk’s cowl, added the experienced fellow, might find himself mistaken.