I
will conduct you to the Adler Inn at St. Goarhausen, where I know from
experience you will be taken care of. I shall then purchase four horses,
and return to the inn after you have breakfasted. Three of these horses
are at your disposal, also the fourth and myself, if you will condescend
to make use of us. If not, I shall ask you to accept what money you need
for your journey, so that you may travel north unmolested, while I take
my way in the other direction."
"How can I repay the money," she demanded, "if I do not know who and
what you are?"
"I shall send for it, either to your Castle of Sayn, or the Convent of
Nonnenwerth. You need be under no obligation to me."
"But," cried the girl with a sob, "I am already under obligation to you;
an obligation which I cannot repay."
"Oh yes, you can."
"How?"
"By coming with me, who will persuade you, as readily as you did with
your guardian, who coerced you."
"I am an ungrateful simpleton," she murmured. "Of course your way is the
right one, and I am quite helpless if you desert me.
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