ning on his breast, and his warm
bearded lips were for the first time set on mine.

Master Pernhart and his wife had come out of the further chamber with my
cousin, and Ann, and the grandam, and the elder children gazed at us; yet
neither he nor I paid heed to them and, as each looked into the other's
eyes, and I saw that his face was the same as of old, albeit of a darker
brown, and more well-favored and manly; then my heart sang out in joyful
triumph, and I made no resistance when he held me closer to him and
whispered in my ear: "But Margery, how may a cousin, who is not an old
man, go forth as squire to a fair young maid, and so further on through a
lifetime, and not rouse other folks to great and righteous wrath?"

At this the blood mounted to my face; and albeit I by no means doubted of
my reply, he spared my bashfulness and went on with deep feeling: "But if
he did so as your wedded husband, what aunt or gossip then might dare to
blame him and his honored wife, Dame Margery Waldstromer?"

Whereat I smiled right gladly up at my new lover, and answered him in a
whisper: "Not one, Gotz, not one."

Thus I plighted my troth to him that very evening; and as for the costly
jewels which he had bought on the Rialto at Venice to bring to his dear
Red-riding-hood, and now gave me as his first love-tokens, what were they
to me as compared with the joyful news wherewith he could rejoice our
hearts? So presently we sat with the Pernharts after that Cousin Maud and
Uncle Christian Pfinzing, my dear godfather, had been bidden to join us.
Gotz sat with his arm round me, and my hand rested in his.

For how long a space had lands and seas lain betwixt us, how swift and
sudden had his wooing been and my consent! And yet, meseemed as though I
had but now fulfilled the purpose of Providence for me from the
beginning; and there was singing and blossoming in my breast and heart,
as though they were an enchanted garden wherein fountains were leaping,
and roses and tulips and golden apples and grapes were blooming and
ripening among pine-trees and ivy-wreaths.

Nevertheless I lost no word of his speech, and could have listened to him
till morning should dawn again. And while we thus sat, or paced the room
arm-in-arm, I heard many matters, and yet not enough of Gotz's
adventurous fate, and of the happy turn my brothers' concerns had taken
with his good help. And what we now learned from his clear and plain
report, answering our much q