"Sit down," said he, "I do not mind in the least, being punished again. I have dreamt this very night, that you cut off all my curls, and that I had returned to school with an entirely bald head,--and yet I was not sorry for it."
Praxedis lightly clapped his head. "Don't grow too impudent during the holidays, my little man; or thy back will prove a nice floor for the rod to dance upon, when thou gettest back to thy cloister-school."
But the cloister-pupil was not thinking of the cool auditories of his monastery. He remained standing motionless before Praxedis.
"Well?" said she, "what is the matter?" "what dost thou want?"
"A kiss," replied the pupil of the liberal arts.
"Heigho! nothing else?" laughed Praxedis. "What reasons has thy wisdom for such a demand?"
"The Lady Duchess has kissed me also," said Burkhard, "and you have often asked me to tell you all about that day, when I fled with my brave, old friend Romeias before the Huns, and how he fought like a hero, as he was. All this I shall not tell you, unless you will give me a kiss."
"Listen," said the Greek maid with a mock serious face, "I have something very wonderful to tell you."
"What?" asked the boy eagerly.
"That thou art the naughtiest little rogue, that has ever set his foot on the threshold of a cloister-school," continued she, and suddenly throwing her white arms around him, she gave him a hearty kiss on the nose.