Yet her laugh sounded by no means spiteful—­rather, very gay and natural.  The pleasant grey eyes sparkled with the most genuine mirth, and she clapped her little hands so joyously that the falcon’s chain on the gauntlet of her riding glove rattled.

And what was this?

No one looks at a person whom one desires to wound with an expression of such cheerful encouragement as the look with which Cordula now gazed at Els and Heinz Schorlin, who stood by her side.  True, they were at first extremely perplexed by the words she now shouted to those around her in a tone of loud exultation, as though announcing a victory; but from the beginning they felt that there was no evil purpose in them.  Soon they even caught the real meaning of the countess’s statement, and Els was ashamed of having feared any injury from the girl whose defender she had always been.

“Won, Sir Knight—­cleverly won!” was her first sentence to Heinz.

Then, turning to Els, she asked with no less animation:  “And you, my fair maid and very strict housemate, who has won the wager now?  Do you still believe it is an inconceivable thought that the modest daughter of a decorous Nuremberg race, entitled to enter the lists of a tourney, would grant a young knight a midnight meeting?” And addressing her companions, she continued, in an explanatory yet still playful tone:  “She was ready to wager the beautiful brown locks which she now hides modestly under a kerchief, and even her betrothed lover’s ring.  It should be mine if I succeeded in leading her to commit such an abominable deed.  But I was content, if I won the wager, with a smaller forfeit; yet now that I have gained it, Jungfrau Ortlieb, you must pay!”

The whole company listened in astonishment to this speech, which no one understood, but the countess, nodding mischievously to her nearest neighbours, went on: 

“How bewildered you all look!  It might tempt me to satisfy your curiosity less speedily, but, after the delightful entertainment you gave us, my Lord Burgrave, one becomes merciful.  So you shall hear how I, as wise as the serpent, craftily forced this haughty knight”—­she tapped Heinz Schorlin’s arm with her riding whip—­“and you, too, Jungfrau Ortlieb, whose pardon I now entreat, to help me win the bet.  No offence, noble sirs!  But this bet was what compelled me to drag you all from Kadolzburg and its charms so early, and induce you to attend me on the reckless ride through the moonlit night.  Now accept the thanks of a lady whose heart is grateful; for your obedience helped me win the wager.  Look yonder at my handsome, submissive knight, Sir Heinz Schorlin, so rich in every virtue.  I commanded, him, on pain of my anger, to meet me at midnight at the entrance of our quarters—­that is, the entry of the Ortlieb mansion; and to this modest and happy betrothed bride (may she pardon the madcap!) I represented how it troubled me and wounded my timid delicacy to enter so late at night, accompanied