e last male offspring of the old
Schopper race, have gone through life unwed. Yet of a certainty they
may spare me the answer to whom I have honestly confessed all my heart's
pangs at the meeting of Herdegen with Ann.

After the death of her best-beloved lord the young widow was overcome
with brooding melancholy from which nothing could rouse her. At that
time you, my Margery and Agnes, her daughters, clung to me as to your
own father; and when, at the end of three years, your mother was healed
of that melancholy, it had come about that you had learned to call me
father while I had sported with you and loved you in "your" mother's
stead, and taught you to fold your little hands in prayer and led you
out for air walking by your side. Your mother had heeded it not; but
then, when she bloomed forth in new and wondrous beauty, and I beheld
that Hans Koler and the Knight Sir Henning von Beust, who had likewise
remained unwed, were again her suitors, the old love woke up in my
heart; and one fair May evening, out in the forest, the question rose to
my lips whether she could not grant me the right to call you indeed my
children before all the world, and her....

But to what end touch the wound which to this day is scarce healed?

In this world and the next she would never be any man's but his to whom
her heart's great and only love had been given. But from that evening
forth I, the rejected suitor, must suffer that you children should no
longer call me father, but Uncle Kunz; and when afterwards it came to
be dear little uncle you may believe that I was thankful. She no
less rejected the suit of Koler and of von Beust; but the last-named
gentleman made up for his dismissal by marrying a noble damsel of
Brandenburg. At a later time when he came to Nuremberg he was made
welcome by Margery, and then, meeting with Ann once more, he showed
himself to be still so youthful and duteous in his service to her,
in despite of her grey hairs, that for certain it was well for his
happiness at home that he should have come without his wife.

Not long after Ann's rejection I confessed to Margery what had befallen,
and when she heard it, she cast her arms about my neck and cried: "Why,
ne'er content, must you crave a new home and family? Are not two
warm hearths yours to sit at, and the love and care of two faithful
house-wives; and are you not the father and counsellor, not alone of
your nephews and nieces, but of their parents likewise?"