Thus I was forbidden to see Ann in my brother’s chamber; nevertheless I had much on my heart and I could guess that she likewise was eager to speak with me; but when at last I was alone with her in our bed chamber, she had matter for speech of which I had not dreamed.  When I asked her what message she might desire me to give Herdegen from her, she besought me as I loved her not to name her at all in his presence.  This, indeed, amazed me not a little, inasmuch as I weened not that she knew of all the grief I had suffered yestereve.  But this was not so; I learnt now that she had marked everything, and had heard the men’s light talk about the dashing youth whom the dark-eyed hussy had been so swift to choose from among them all.  I, indeed, tried to make the best of the matter, but she gave me to understand that, if her lover had not done himself a mischief, it had been her intent to question him that very day as to whether he was in earnest with his love-pledges, or would rather that she should give him back his ring and his word.  All this she spoke without a tear or a sigh, with steadfast purpose; and already I began, for my part, to doubt of the truth of her love; and I told her this plainly.  Thereupon she clasped me to her, and while the tears gathered and sparkled in her great eyes, expounded to me all the matter; and in truth it was all I should myself have said in her place.  She, of simple birth, would enter the circle of her betters on sufferance, and her new friends would, of a certainty, not do her more honor than her own husband.  On his manner of treating her therefore would depend what measure of respect she might look for as his wife.  And so long as their promise to marry was a secret, she would have him show, whether to her alone or before all the world, that he held her consent as of no less worth than that of the wealthiest and highest born heiress.

All this she spoke in hot haste while her cheeks glowed red.  I saw the blue veins swell on her pure brow, and can never forget the image of her as she raised her tearful eyes to Heaven and pressing her hands on her panting bosom cried:  “To go forth with him to want or death is as nothing!  But never will I be led into shame, not even by him.”

When presently I left her, after speaking many loving words to her, and holding her long in my arms, she was ready to forgive him; but she held to this:  “Not a word, not a glance, not a kiss, until Herdegen had vowed that yesterday’s offence should be the first and last she should ever suffer.”

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.