For a moment she felt an impulse to rise and go downstairs, but she did not like to leave her warm bed, and Wolf would manage without her.

She had always lacked patience to wait upon the sick, and Ursel had grown so harsh and disagreeable since she joined the Protestants.

Finally, Barbara had brought home exquisite recollections of her illustrious lover, which must not be clouded by the suffering of the old woman, whom, besides, she could rarely please.
She did not learn what had happened until she went to mass, and then it weighed heavily upon her heart that she had not given Wolf her assistance, especially as she suspected, with strange certainty, that she herself was connected with this terrible misfortune.
Now--ah, how gladly!--she would have helped Ursel with the nursing, but she forbade her to enter the sick-room.

The most absolute quiet must reign there.

No one was permitted to cross the threshold except herself and an elderly nun, whom the Clares had sent for the sake of the wounded man's dead mother.