Wolf bowed reverently before the dignified figure of the distinguished Dominican, and the latter, as he recognised him, paused to request curtly that he would give him a few minutes the following day.
"If I can be of any service to your Reverence," replied Wolf, taking the prelate's delicate hand to kiss it; but the almoner, with visible coldness, withdrew it, repellently interrupting him: "First, Sir Knight, I must ask you for an explanation.

Where the plague is raging in every street, we ought to guard our own houses carefully against it." "Undoubtedly," replied Wolf, unsuspiciously.

"But I shall set out early to-morrow morning with her Majesty." "Then," replied the Dominican after a brief hesitation, "then a word with you now." He continued his way to the second story, and Wolf, with an anxious mind, followed him into a waiting room, now empty, near the staircase.
The deep seriousness in the keen eyes of the learned confessor, which could look gentle, indulgent, and sometimes even merry, revealed that he desired to discuss some matter of importance; but the very first question which the priest addressed to him restored the young man's composure.
The confessor merely desired to know what took him to the house of the man who must be known to him as the soul of the evangelical innovations in his native city, and the friend of Martin Luther.
Wolf now quietly informed him what offer Dr.Hiltner, as syndic of Ratisbon, had made him in the name of the Council.
"And you ?" asked the confessor anxiously.
"I declined it most positively," replied Wolf, "although it would have suited my taste to stand at the head of the musical life in my native city." "Because you prefer to remain in the service of her Majesty Queen Mary ?" asked De Soto.
"No, your Eminence.

Probably I shall soon leave the position near her person.

I rather feared that, as a good Catholic, I would find it difficult to do my duty in the service of an evangelical employer." "There is something in that.