cupboards
and chairs were all artistically carved. And all who came in willingly
obeyed the direction inscribed in verses, according to olden custom, on
a tablet which hung near the door:--

Let him who will the stairs ascend
See that his shoes be rubbed well clean.
Or taken off were better, I ween;
He thus avoids what might offend.
A thoughtful man is well aware
How he indoors himself should bear.

It had been a hot day, and now as the hour of twilight was approached
it began to be close and stuffy in the rooms, so Master Martin led his
eminent guest into the cool and spacious parlour-kitchen. For this was
the name applied at that time to a place in the houses of the rich
citizens which, although furnished as a kitchen, was never used as
such--all kinds of valuable utensils and other necessaries of
housekeeping being there set out on show. Hardly had they got inside
the door when Master Martin shouted in a loud voice, "Rose, Rose!" Then
the door was immediately opened, and Rose, Master Martin's only
daughter, came in.

I should like you, dear reader, to awaken at this moment a vivid
recollection of our great Albrecht Duerer's masterpieces; I would
wish that the glorious maidens whom we find in them, with all their
noble grace, their sweet gentleness and piety, should recur to your
mind, endowed with living form. Recall the noble and delicate figure,
the beautifully arched, lily-white forehead, the carnation flitting
like a breath of roses across the cheek, the full sweet cherry-red
lips,--recall the eyes full of pious aspirations, half-veiled by their
dark lashes, like moonlight seen through dusky foliage,--recall the
silky hair, artfully gathered into graceful plaits,--recall the divine
beauty of these maidens, and you will see lovely Rose. How else than in
this way could the narrator sketch the dear, darling child? And yet
permit me to remind you here of an admirable young artist into whose
heart a quickening ray has fallen from these beautiful old times. I
mean the German painter Cornelius,[14] in Rome. Just as Margaret looks
in Cornelius's drawings to Goethe's mighty _Faust_ when she utters the
words, "Bin weder Fraeulein noch schoen"[15] (I am neither a lady of
rank, nor yet beautiful), so also may Rose have looked when in the
shyness of her pure chaste heart she felt compelled to shun addresses
that smacked somewhat too much of freedom.