"
"Threaten what I neither could nor would perform, mother? That were
a shrewish resource."
"Yet would it save the child," muttered Johanna. But, in the
meantime, Christina was rising from the floor, and stood before them
with loose hair, tearful eyes, and wet, flushed cheeks. "It must be
thus," she said, in a low, but not unsteady voice. "I can bear it
better since I have heard of the poor young lady, sick and with none
to care for her. I will go with my father; it is my duty. I will do
my best; but oh! uncle, so work with him that he may bring me back
again."
"This from thee, Stina!" exclaimed her aunt; "from thee who art sick
for fear of a lanzknecht!"
"The saints will be with me, and you will pray for me," said
Christina, still trembling.
"I tell thee, child, thou knowst not what these vile dens are.
Heaven forfend thou shouldst!" exclaimed her aunt. "Go only to
Father Balthazar, housefather, and see if he doth not call it a
sending of a lamb among wolves."
"Mind'st thou the carving I did for Father Balthazar's own oratory?"
replied Master Gottfried.
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