When I then asked him whether Kunz had not likewise come home with him to
Venice, and Kubbeling had answered me no, Uhlwurm said once more, or ever
his master had done speaking, "Gone!" in his deep, mournful voice, and
again swept away crumbs, as it might be, in the air. Hereupon so great a
fear fell upon me that meseemed a sharp steel bodkin was being thrust
into my heart; but Kubbeling had seen me turn pale, and he turned upon
Uhlwurm in high wrath, and to the end that I might take courage he cried:
"No, no, I say no. What does the old fool know about it! It is only by
reason that the galley tarried for Junker Schopper and weighed anchor
half a day later, that he forbodes ill. The delay was not needed. And who
can tell what young masters will be at? They get a fancy in their green
young heads, and it must be carried out whether or no. He swore to me
with a high and solemn oath that he would not rest till he had found some
trace of his brother, and if he kept the galleon waiting for that reason,
what wonder? Is it aught to marvel at? And you, Mistress Margery, have of
a surety known here in the Forest whither a false scent may lead.--Junker
Kunz! Whither he may have gone to seek his brother, who can tell? Not I,
and much less Uhlwurm. And young folks flutter hither and thither like an
untrained falcon; and if Master Kunz, who is so much graver and wiser
than others of his green youth, finds no one to open his eyes, then he
may--I do not say for certain, but peradventure, for why should I
frighten you all?--he may, I say, hunt high and low to all eternity. The
late Junker Herdegen. . . ."

And again I felt that sharp pang through my heart, and I cried in the
anguish of my soul: "The late Junker--late Junker, did you say? How came
you to use such a word? By all you hold sacred, Kubbeling, torture me no
more. Confess all you know concerning my elder brother!"

This I cried out with a quaking voice, but all too soon was I speechless
again, for once more that dreadful "Gone!" fell upon my ear from
Uhlwurm's lips.

I hid my face in my hands, and sitting thus in darkness, I heard the
bird-dealer, in real grief now, repeat Uhlwurm's word of ill-omen:
"Gone." Yet he presently added in a tone of comfort: "But only
perchance--not for certain, Mistress Margery."

Albeit he was now willing to tell more, he was stopped in the very act.
Neither he nor I had seen that some one had silently entered the hall
with my Uncle Christian