nds,
and that whereas we had found a faithful and experienced companion, it
was our firm intent. . . .

Here Cousin Maud broke in, having come close to me with open ears, crying
aloud in terror: "What?" Howbeit I looked her in the eyes and went on:

"When our mind is set, Cousin, the thing will be done, of that you and
all may make certain--that stands as sure as the castle on the rock. And
be it known to you all, with all due respect, that this time I will
suffer none to cross my path. Once for all, I, Margery, and Ann with me,
are going forth to the land of Egypt in Kubbeling's company, and to Cairo
itself!"

The worthy old woman gave a scream, and while the Brunswicker shut the
dining-hall door, that we might not be heard, she broke out, with glowing
eyes, beside herself with wrath: "Verily and indeed! So that is your
purpose! Thanks be to the Virgin, to say and to do are not one and the
same, far from it. Do you conceive that you hold all love for those two
youths yonder in sole fief or lease? As though others were not every whit
as ready as you to give their best to save them. A head that runs at a
wall cracks its skull! Maids should never touch matters which do not
beseem them! What next for a skittle-witted fancy!--That it should have
come into the brain of a Schopper is no marvel, but Ann, prudent Ann!
Would any man have dreamed of such a thing in our young days, Master
Cousin? There they stand, two well born Nuremberg damsels, who have never
been suffered to go next door alone after Ave Maria! And they are fain to
cross the seas to a dark outlandish place, into the very jaws of the
dreadful Heathen who butcher Christian people!" Whereupon she clapped her
hands and laughed aloud, albeit not from her heart, and then raved on:
"At least is it a new thing, and the first time that the like hath ever
been heard of in Nuremberg!"

If the whole of the holy Roman Empire had risen up to make resistance and
to mock us, it would have failed to move Ann or me, and I answered, loud
and steadfast: "Everything right and good that ever was done in
Nuremberg, my heart's beloved Cousin, was done there once for the first
time; and it is right and good that we should go, and we mean to do it!"
Whereupon Cousin Maud drew back in disgust and amazement, and gazed from
one to the other of us with enquiring eyes, and as wondering a face as
though she were striving to rede some dark riddle. Then her vast bosom
began to heave up and d