, when he had asked where and how,
she had answered him that it was in one of those love-makings which were
ever the aim and business of his life. Thus he might tell all his kith
and kin in Nuremberg henceforth to cease their spying and prying, which
had already cost her more pains and writing than enough.

This discourse had but ill-pleased Kubbeling, yet had he not taken it
amiss, and had only said that she would be doing Kunz--who had come to
Egypt with him--right good service, if she would give him more exact
tidings of how his brother had met his end.

"Whereupon," said the bird-seller, "she gave me a look the like of which
not many could give; for inasmuch as the lady is, for certain, over eyes
and ears in love with Junker Kunz...."

But I stopped him, and said that in this he was of a certainty mistaken;
Howbeit he laughed shortly and went on. "Which of us saw her? I or you?
But love or no love--only listen till the end. Mistress Ursula for sure
knew not till then that Junker Kunz was in Alexandria, and so soon as
she learnt it she began to question me. She must know the day and hour
when he had cast anchor there, wherefor he had chosen to lodge in the
Genoa Fondaco, when I last had seen him, nay, and of what stuff and
color his garments were made. She went through them all, from the
feather in his hat to his hose. As for me, I must have seemed well nigh
half witted, and I told her at last that I had no skill in such matters,
but that I had ever seen him of an evening in a white mantle with a
peaked hood. Hereupon the blood all left her face, and with it all her
beauty. She clapped her hand to her forehead like one possessed or in a
fit, as though caught in her own snare, and she would have fallen, if I
had not held her upright. And then, on a sudden, she stood firm on her
feet, bid me depart right roughly, and pointed to the door; and I was
ready and swift enough in departing. When I was telling of all this to
Uhlwurm, who had stayed without, and what I had heard concerning Junker
Herdegen, he had nought to say but that accursed 'Gone!' And how that
dazes me, old mole that I am, you yourselves have seen. But the demeanor
of Mistress Tetzel of Nuremberg, I have never had it out of my mind
since, day or night, nor again, yesterday."

He rubbed his damp brow, drank a draught, and took a deep breath; he
was not wont to speak at such length. But whereas we asked him many
questions of these matters, he turned again