d these events as a pretext for longer delay, saying
that both he and his wife needed at least six months' interval ere they
could forget their mourning in a gay wedding festival. Besides, he would
prefer not to have the marriage take place until after Wolff's election
to the Council, which, in all probability, would occur after Walpurgis of
the coming year.

Ernst Ortlieb had sullenly submitted to all this. Nothing but his love
for his child and respect for Herr Casper's dead mother, who had taken
Els to her heart like a beloved granddaughter, would have enabled him to
conquer his hasty temper in his negotiations with the man whom he
detested in his inmost soul, and not hurl back the consent so reluctantly
granted to his son.

The friends who knew him admired the strength of will with which he
governed his impetuous nature in this transaction. Some asserted that
secret obligations compelled him to yield to the rich Eysvogel; for
though the Ortlieb mercantile house was reputed wealthy, the business
prudence of its head resulted in smaller profits, and people had not
forgotten that it had suffered heavy losses during the terrible period of
despotism which had preceded the Emperor Rudolph's accession to the
throne.

The insecurity of the high-roads had injured every merchant, but in
trying to find some explanation for Herr Ortlieb's submission the attacks
which had cost him one and another train of wares were regarded as
specially disastrous.

Finally, the dowry which Els was to bring bore no comparison to the large
sums Ernst Ortlieb had lavished upon the erection of the St. Clare
Convent, and hence it was inferred that the wealth of the firm had
sustained considerable losses. This found ready credence, owing to the
retired life led by the Ortliebs,--whose house had formerly been one of
the most hospitable in the city,--ever since the wife had become an
invalid and Eva had grown up with an aversion to the world. Few took the
trouble to inquire into the very apparent causes for the change.

Yet this view of the matter was opposed by many-nay, when the
conversation turned upon these subjects, Herr Berthold Vorchtel, perhaps
the richest and most distinguished man in Nuremberg, who rented the
imperial taxes, made comments from which, had it not been so difficult to
believe, people might have inferred that Casper Eysvogel was indebted to
Ernst Ortlieb rather than the latter to him.

Yet the cautious, prudent man never