Again the rustling was heard.
"... and wondering how the wine will be, and whose health, you are going to drink in it. The Voges-mountains seem to wink over at you, as bright and blue, as the Alps do from here; and as you are gazing at them, you see a cloud of dust rising on the highroad from Breisach. Soon after, horses and carriages become visible, and--well, Master Ekkehard, who is coming?"
Ekkehard who had scarcely followed her recital, shyly said, "who?"
"Who else, but your mistress, who will not give up her sovereign right of examining her subjects doings!"
"And then?"
"Then? then I shall gather information about how Master Ekkehard has been fulfilling his duties; and they will all say: 'he is good and earnest, and if he would not think and brood quite so much, and not read so often in his parchments, we should like him still better.'" ...
"And then?" asked he once more. His voice sounded strange.
"Then I shall say in the words of Scripture: 'well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things.'"
Ekkehard stood there like one, but half conscious. He lifted one arm, and let it fall again. A tear trembled in his eye. He was very unhappy.
... At the same time, a man softly crept out, from the bushes. As soon as he felt the grass again under his feet, he let his habit, which had been gathered up, drop down. Looking stealthily back once more at the two, standing there, he shook his head, like one who has made a discovery. He had certainly not gone into the bushes, to gather violets.