s I shall not borrow trouble. You will, then,
tell the duke that you have changed your mind, that you have
reconsidered?"

"This evening. Now, godfather, you may kiss her serene highness on the
forehead."

"This honor to me?" The chancellor trembled.

"Even so."

He did not touch her with Ne hands, but the kiss he put on her forehead
was a benediction.

"You may go now," she said, "for I shall need the whole room to dance
in. I am free, if only for a little while!"

Outside the door the chancellor paused. She was singing. It was the same
aria he had heard that memorable night when he found her in the dim
garret.

CHAPTER IX

GRETCHEN'S DAY

Gretchen was always up when the morning was rosy, when the trees were
still dark and motionless, and the beads of dew white and frostlike. For
what is better than to meet the day as it comes over the mountains, and
silence breaks here and there, in the houses and streets, in the fields
and the vineyards? Let old age, which has played its part and taken to
the wings of the stage, let old age loiter in the morning, but not green
years. Gretchen awoke as the birds awoke, with snatches and little
trills of song. To her nearest neighbors there was about her that which
reminded them of the regularity of a good clock; when they heard her
voice they knew it was time to get up.

She was always busy in the morning. The tinkle of the bell outside
brought her to the door, and her two goats came pattering in to be
relieved of their creamy burden. Gretchen was fond of them; they needed
no care at all. The moment she had milked them they went tinkling off to
the steep pastures.

Even in midsummer the dawn was chill in Dreiberg. She blew on her
fingers. The fire was down to the last ember; so she went into the
cluttered courtyard and broke into pieces one of the limbs she had
carried up from the valley earlier in the season. The fire renewed its
cheerful crackle, the kettle boiled briskly, and the frugal breakfast
was under way.

There was daily one cup of coffee, but neither Gretchen nor her
grandmother claimed this luxury; it was for the sick woman on the third
floor. Sometimes at the Black Eagle she had a cup when her work was
done, but to Gretchen the aroma excelled the taste. Her grandmother's
breakfast and her own out of the way, she carried the coffee and bread
and a hot brick up to the invalid. The woman gave her two crowns a week
to serve this morning meal. Gretche