After this however the priests were called away, and long, long did
Christina first kneel and then sit in the little lonely church,
hearing the various sounds without, and imagining that her father had
forgotten her, and that he and all the rest were drinking, and then
what would become of her? Why had she quitted old Ursel's
protection?
Hours of waiting and nameless alarm must have passed, for the sun was
waxing low, when at length she heard steps coming up the hermit's
cell, and a head rose above the pavement which she recognized with a
wild throb of joy, but, repressing her sense of gladness, she only
exclaimed, "Oh, where is my father!"
"I have sent him to the toll at the Gemsbock's Pass," replied Sir
Eberhard, who had by this time come up the stairs, followed by
Brother Peter and the two lay assistants. Then, as Christina turned
on him her startled, terrified eyes in dismay and reproach for such
thoughtlessness, he came towards her, and, bending his head and
opening his hand, he showed on his palm two gold rings. "There,
little one," he said; "now shalt thou never again shut me out.
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