"
"Fairly, Ebbo?" she asked in a low voice.
"Nay, mother, if Jobst DID hide a branch in midstream, it was no
doing of mine; and the horses fell. The Schlangenwaldern don't even
wait to let them fall. We cannot live, if we are to be so nice and
dainty."
"Ah! my son, I thought not to hear you call mercy and honesty mere
niceness."
"What do I hear?" exclaimed Frau Kunigunde, entering from the
storeroom, where she had been disposing of some spices, a much
esteemed commodity. "Are you chiding and daunting this boy, as you
have done with the other?"
"My mother may speak to me!" cried Ebbo, hotly, turning round.
"And quench thy spirit with whining fooleries! Take the Baron's
bounty, woman, and vex him not after his first knightly exploit."
"Heaven knows, and Ebbo knows," said the trembling Christina, "that,
were it a knightly exploit, I were the first to exult."
"Thou! thou craftsman's girl! dost presume to call in question the
knightly deeds of a noble house! There!" cried the furious Baroness,
striking her face. Now! dare to be insolent again.
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