height; our absence we deemed had scarce been marked; howbeit, as soon as
we entered, my grand-uncle made enquiry "where Herdegen might be," and
when I looked about me at haphazard I beheld--my eyes did not cheat me--
I beheld Mistress Henneleinlein in one of the side-stalls.

No man told me, yet was I sure and certain that she was saying somewhat
which concerned me, and presently I discerned in the dim back-ground the
feathered plume which Ursula had worn at the dance. My heart beat with
fears; every word spoken by the old Dame would of a surety do us a
mischief. Hans mocked at my alarms and at a maid's folly in ever taking
to herself matters which concern her not.

Then Ursula came forth into the hall again, and how she swept past us on
Junker Henning's arm.

A young knight of the Palatinate now led me out to a dance I had erewhile
promised him.

We stopped for lack of breath. The festival was over; yet did Ursula and
the Junker walk together. He was hearkening eagerly to all she might
say, and on a sudden he clapped his hand into hers which she held out to
him, and his eyes, which he had held set on the floor, fired up with a
flash. Presently he and the Knight von Rochow made their way, arm in arm
through the press, and both were laughing and pulling their long red
beards.

I still clung to my lover's arm and entreated him to take me to speak
with Junker Henning, inasmuch as I sorely wanted to question him; but the
Junker diligently kept far from us. Nevertheless we at last stayed him,
and after that I had enquired, as it were in jest, whether he had healed