t dark hair made him look exactly like dark-browed Xaver.
Therefore his relations with Isabella were all the more friendly.

She was scarcely fourteen, a dear little creature, with awkward limbs,
and a face so wonderfully changeful in expression, that it could not fail
to be by turns pretty and repellent. She always had beautiful eyes; all
her other features were unformed, and might grow charming or exactly the
reverse. When her work engrossed her attention, she bit her protruded
tongue, and her raven-black hair, usually remarkably smooth, often became
so oddly dishevelled, that she looked like a kobold; when, on the other
hand, she talked pleasantly or jested, no one could help being pleased.

The child was rarely gifted, and her method of working was an exact
contrast to that of the German lad. She progressed slowly, but finally
accomplished something admirable; what Ulrich impetuously began had a
showy, promising aspect, but in the execution the great idea shrivelled,
and the work diminished in merit instead of increasing.

Sanchez Coello remained far behind the other two, but to make amends, he
knew many things of which Ulrich's uncorrupted soul had no suspicion.

Little Isabella had been given by her mother, for a duenna, a watchful,
ill-tempered widow, Senora Catalina, who never left the girl while she
remained with Moor's pupils.

Receiving instruction with others urged Ulrich to rivalry, and also
improved his knowledge of Spanish. But he soon became familiar with the
language in another way, for one day, as he came out of the stables, a
thin man in black, priestly robes, advanced towards him, looked
searchingly into his face, then greeted him as a countryman, declaring
that it made him happy to speak his dear native tongue again. Finally, he
invited the "artist" to visit him. His name was Magister Kochel and he
lodged with the king's almoner, for whom he was acting as clerk.

The pallid man with the withered face, deep-set eyes and peculiar grin,
which always showed the bluish-red gums above the teeth, did not please
the boy, but the thought of being able to talk in his native language
attracted him, and he went to the German's.

He soon thought that by so doing he was accomplishing something good and
useful, for the former offered to teach him to write and speak Spanish.
Ulrich was glad to have escaped from school, and declined this proposal;
but when the German suggested that he should content himself wit