The Sieur EisengreinNow when some months had passed over the land, the Duke remarked a great bewilderment and dismay as well as a pining in his beloved; and her habit, which she shared with him, of sometimes looking sidelong out of the corners of her eyes as though listening, grew constant and permanent, so that she now never seemed able to look otherwise at all, and also her lovely lips were parted with dread.
‘What is it with you, nearest and dearest, precious friend, you only one, what frightens you?’
‘Nothing, no matter.’
Then he found her flung across a table, her face buried in her arms, quite dissolved in tears.
‘Sibylla, sweetheart, now you must tell me all. I can no longer bear your distress and cudgel my brains for its reason, which I find not, upon which, do all I can, I can
