re very thick, and she
peeped also once through the keyhole, but could only perceive the head
of the stranger."

"Well, is he an old man? What does he look like?"

"Old, indeed? what are you thinking about? She does not look like one
who would put up with an old lover. Rosel told me he was young and
handsome, with a dark beard on his chin and lip, beautiful smooth hair
on his head, and looked very kind and gracious."

"May Satan pluck hair for hair out of his beard!" muttered Albert, as
he passed his hand over his own chin, which was tolerably smooth.
"Woman! are you sure you have really heard all this from old Rosel?
Have you not added more than she told you?"

"God forbid that I should calumniate any one! You don't know me, sir
knight! Rosel told me every word of it, and she suspects a great deal
more, and whispered in my ear things which it does not become a
respectable woman to relate to a young man. And only think how very
wicked the young lady must be; she has had also another lover, to whom
she is unfaithful."

"Another?" asked Albert, to whom the narration appeared to gain more
and more the semblance of truth.

"Yes, another; who according to Rosel's account must be a charming nice
young man. She was with her young mistress in Tuebingen, and there was a
Herr von ---- von ----, I believe he was called Sturmfittich; he studied
at the University; they became acquainted with each other there; and
the old nurse declares such a handsome couple was not to be found in
all Swabia. She was over head and ears in love with him, that's true;
and was very unhappy when she parted with him in Tuebingen; but now her
false heart is unfaithful to the poor youth, and Rosel really weeps
when she thinks of him; he is handsomer, much handsomer, than her
present lover."

The hostess, who had quite forgotten her household duties in her zeal
to relate the gossip of the neighbourhood, was now called by the fat
man in the drinking room: "Landlady," said he, "how long must I knock
here, before I get another can of wine."

"Coming, coming, sir!" she answered, and flew to the bar to satisfy the
importunate man, and from thence she went to the cellar, and then to
the kitchen, and was all of a sudden so full of business, that her
guest in the bow had sufficient time to ponder over all he had just
heard. He sat there, his hand supporting his head, looking with fixed
eyes into the bottom of his silver tankard; he remained in that
posit