During this whole period she had not met him.  Not until after she had come to Augsburg, where Loni’s company was to give several performances before the assembled Reichstag, did she see him again.  Once she even succeeded in attracting his gaze, and this was done in a way which afforded her great satisfaction.  His beautiful wife, clad in costly velvet robes, was walking by his side with eyes decorously downcast; but he had surely recognised her—­there was no doubt of that.  Yet he omitted to inform his wife, even by a look, whom he had met here.  Kuni watched the proud couple a long time, and, with the keen insight of a loving heart, told herself that he would have pointed her out to Frau Katharina, if he did not remember her in some way—­either in kindness or in anger.

This little discovery had sufficed to transfigure, as it were, the rest of the day, and awaken a throng of new hopes and questions.

Even now she did not desire to win Frau Katharina’s husband from her.  She freely acknowledged that the other’s beauty was tenfold greater than her own; but whether the gifts of love which the woman with the cloudless, aristocratic composure could offer to her husband were not like the beggar’s pence, compared with the overflowing treasure of ardent passion which she cherished for Lienhard, was a question to which she believed there could be but a single answer.  Was this lady, restricted by a thousand petty scruples, as well as by her stiff, heavy gala robes, a genuine woman at all?  Ah! if he would only for once cast aside the foolish considerations which prevented him also from being a genuine man, clasp her, whom he knew was his own, in his arms, and hold her as long as he desired, he should learn what a strong, free, fearless woman, whose pliant limbs were as unfettered as her heart, could bestow upon him to whom she gave all the love that she possessed!  And he must want something of her which was to be concealed from the wife.  She could not be mistaken.  She had never been deceived in a presentiment that was so positive.  Ever since she reached Augsburg, an inner voice had told her—­ and old Brigitta’s cards confirmed it—­that the destiny of her life would be decided here, and he alone held her weal and woe in his hand.

Yet she had misinterpreted his conduct to his wife.  In spite of the finery which Kuni owed to the generosity of the Knight of Neckerfels, who was then a suitor for her favour, Lienhard had recognised her.  The sight recalled their last meeting and its painful termination, and therefore he had omitted to attract Frau Katharina’s attention to her immediately.  But, ere Kuni disappeared, he had repaired the oversight, and both desired to ascertain the fate of their former charge.  True, the wish could not be instantly fulfilled, for Lienhard’s time and strength were wholly claimed by the mission intrusted to him by the Emperor and the Council.