tall man,
tanned brown by the sun, came forth, and said in a deep voice: "Wilt
thou trust these hands, Margery? They are ready and willing to serve
thee faithfully."

Hereupon a cry of joy broke from me: "Gotz," and again "Gotz!"

And albeit meseemed as though the walls, and tables, and chairs were
whirling round me, and as though the ceiling, nay and the blue sky
above it had yawned above me, yet I fell not, but hastened to meet this
new-comer, and grasped his kind, strong hand.

Yet was not this all; or ever I was rightly aware how it befell, he had
clasped me in his arms, and I was leaning on his breast, and his warm
bearded lips were for the first time set on mine.

Master Pernhart and his wife had come out of the further chamber with
my cousin, and Ann, and the grandam, and the elder children gazed at
us; yet neither he nor I paid heed to them and, as each looked into the
other's eyes, and I saw that his face was the same as of old, albeit of
a darker brown, and more well-favored and manly; then my heart sang out
in joyful triumph, and I made no resistance when he held me closer to
him and whispered in my ear: "But Margery, how may a cousin, who is not
an old man, go forth as squire to a fair young maid, and so further on
through a lifetime, and not rouse other folks to great and righteous
wrath?"

At this the blood mounted to my face; and albeit I by no means doubted
of my reply, he spared my bashfulness and went on with deep feeling:
"But if he did so as your wedded husband, what aunt or gossip then might
dare to blame him and his honored wife, Dame Margery Waldstromer?"

Whereat I smiled right gladly up at my new lover, and answered him in a
whisper: "Not one, Gotz, not one."

Thus I plighted my troth to him that very evening; and as for the costly
jewels which he had bought on the Rialto at Venice to bring to his dear
Red-riding-hood, and now gave me as his first love-tokens, what were
they to me as compared with the joyful news wherewith he could rejoice
our hearts? So presently we sat with the Pernharts after that Cousin
Maud and Uncle Christian Pfinzing, my dear godfather, had been bidden to
join us. Gotz sat with his arm round me, and my hand rested in his.

For how long a space had lands and seas lain betwixt us, how swift and
sudden had his wooing been and my consent! And yet, meseemed as though
I had but now fulfilled the purpose of Providence for me from the
beginning; and there was singing an