his promise to take care for Herdegen's ransom. It was raining heavily,
and a wet west wind whistled along the miry streets. It was weariful to
wade through them, and when at last I reached the Im Hoff house Master
Ulsenius called to me down the stairs: "Silence, Mistress Margery; there
is worse weather in here than without doors!"

Thus as I went into the overheated chamber, I saw there was no good to
be hoped for: yet were matters worse than I had looked to find them. So
soon as my grand-uncle set eyes on me he frowned darkly, his hollow eyes
had an angry glare and, without answering my good-day, he croaked at me:
"You hoped that the old man might have passed away into eternity or ever
you set forth on your wild adventure? Hah, hah But you are mistaken. I
shall yet be granted time enough to show you whom you have to deal with,
as it has likewise been enough to show me what you truly are! Whereas
I trusted to have found a faithful and wise brain, what have I seen?
Loveless and malignant privity, miserable folly, and such schemes as
might have been dreamed of in a mad-house!"

"But, uncle, only hearken," I tried to say, and forthwith the idea fell
into my mind, which I afterwards found to be a true one, that either
Henneleinlein, had yestereve betrayed to him or to her gossip his
housekeeper, all she had heard at the Forest Lodge. He would not suffer
me to speak to the end, but went on to chide and complain, and broke in
again and again, even when at last I found words and made it plain to
him that we had kept our purpose privy from him to no end but to save
him from grieving so long as we might; and albeit he might be wroth with
us, yet he must grant that heretofore we had ever been modest and seemly
maidens; but now, when it was a matter of life and freedom for those who
were nearest and dearest to our hearts....

Here he broke in with scornful laughter, and cried out that he, for his
part, might not indeed hope to be numbered among those chosen few. He
had ever known full well that when we did him any Samaritan service it
had been to no end save to draw from his purse the money to ransom
my brothers and Ann's lover. Every kind word had been pure lies and
falseness; yea, and worse than either of us were that crafty witch out
in the forest, and the old scarecrow who made boast of having been as a
mother to me. Thus far had I suffered his railing in patience, but now
it was too much for the hot blood of the Schoppers