the whole business of the trade
to his young nephew; thus it came to pass that Kunz, when he was but just
twenty, was called upon to govern matters such as are commonly trusted
only to a man of ripe years. But his power and wisdom grew with the
weight of his burthens. Whether it were at Nuremberg or at Venice, he was
ever early to rise and ready, if need should be, to give up his night's
rest, sitting over his desk or travelling at great speed; and he seemed
to have no eyes nor ears for the pleasures of youth. Or ever he was four
and twenty I found the first white hair in his brown locks. Many there
were who deemed that the uncommon graveness of his manners came of the
weight of care which had been laid on him so young, and verily not
without reason; yet my sister's heart was aware of another cause. When I
chanced to see his eye rest on Ann, I knew enough; and it was a certainty
that I had not erred in my thought, when old Dame Pernhart one day in his
presence spoke of Ann as her poor, dear little widow, and the blood
mounted to his brow.

I would fain have spoken a word of warning to Ann when she would thank
him with heartfelt and sisterly love for all the pains he had been at,
with steadfast patience, to find any token of our lost brother. And how
fair was the forlorn bride in these days of waiting and of weary
unsatisfied longing!

Poor Kunz! Doubtless he loved her; and yet he neither by word nor deed
gave her cause to guess his heart's desire. When, at about this time, old
Hans Tucher died, one of the worthiest and wisest heads of the town and
the council, Kunz gave Ann for her name-day a prayer-book with the old
man's motto, which he had written in it for Kunz's confirmation, which
was as follows:

"God ruleth all things for the best
And sends a happy end at last."

And Ann took the gift right gladly; and more than once when, after some
disappointment, my spirit sank, she would point to the promise "And sends
a happy end at last."

Whereupon I would look up at her, abashed and put to shame; for it is one
thing not to despair, and another to trust with steadfast confidence on a
happy outcome. She, in truth, could do this; and when I beheld her day by
day at her laborious tasks, bravely and cheerfully fulfilling the hard
and bitter exercises which her father-confessor enjoined, to the end that
she might win the favor of the Saints for her lover, I weened that the
Apostle spake the truth when