A dark flush suffused her face, neck and bosom. He had struck some chord of memory that awakened in her a spark of shame.
"I was helping with the sewing," she stammered.
"Why did you come to the Castle?"
"My father told me I must. He said I was to go up and ask the gnäd'ger Herr if there was any sewing for me to do. I was to earn my bread somehow, he said."
"Oh, indeed!" There was a pause, then he continued: "Go and put on a jacket, Regina."
She passed her hand over her bosom and drew her linen garment tighter round her chest, till the string cut into the swelling flesh.
"Well, why don't you go?"
"I haven't got a jacket."
"What! Didn't he clothe you?"
"They tore my jacket off my back yesterday."