When the abbess returned the money to him, he could not help perceiving that she was no beggar and scorned to be his debtor.

If he then asked himself why, he would find the right answer.

She did not confess it to herself in plain words, but she wished to remain conscious that, whether he desired it or not, she had given her heart's best love to this one man without reward, merely because it was her pleasure to do it.

At last she remembered that she still possessed something valuable.

She had not thought of it before, because it had been as much a part of herself as her eyes or her lips, and it would have seemed utterly impossible to part with it.