Honour and profit followed the work they had printed with him.  Their craft grew proud of them, and friends began to say they might be burgomasters in time; but the light of their days had gone down with Gottleib.  The old house had grown so dreary without him, that they could not live in it.  Every street and corner of the city brought their loss to mind; and hearing that there was peace and room for printers in their father’s country, the young men sold their German dwelling to a wealthy burgher, collected their money, chattels, and types, and came with them to London.  Paternoster Row was even in those days the resort of traders in books; and happening to see the antiquated house in Amen-Corner, the strangers thought it had a pleasant likeness to their old home; so they purchased it at the expense of nearly all they possessed, except their printing-press, with which they established themselves there, determined never to part, but live together in the country of their fathers.

Hard by there lived a widow of German parentage, whose husband had been a printer; but he and his seven children were all dead.  Gunhilde, for such was her name, was old, poor, and lonely, and she became their housekeeper.  Years of resolute toil and prudent frugality passed over the brothers, till they were no longer strangers in old London, nor inconsiderable among the inhabitants of the Row.  Their press had done its part in the work of the times.  They had printed the ’Book of Sports’ and the ‘Westminster Confession;’ broadside ballads concerning Robin Hood and Maid Marian; and heavy folios on Free-will and Predestination.  Christopher and Hubert had increased in substance also to a degree never dreamed of in their German home.  The dealers in books began to talk of them as somewhat notable men; but cares and causes of division had come with property and importance.  In some respects, the brothers were of the same temper:  both were earnest, brave, and high-spirited—­strong to will, and steady to work.  They had been faithful friends and loving brethren through many a change and trial; but there was a grievous fault in both.  Each was given to exact from the other’s friendship, though in a different fashion; for Christopher expected too much of inward affection, and Hubert had too much respect to outward observances.  Alike, on the ground of resemblance and of difference, sprang up the roots of bitterness which troubled their days.  At first, their strangership, their strivings to live and thrive in the English land, and, above all, the memory and loving counsels of their lost Gottleib, had bound them heart and hand together; but as the years of manhood hardened heart and mind, as increasing gains brought leisure and anxious looks on life, differences of opinion, of tastes, and of inclinations, gradually crept in between them, and their elder brother waned away from their remembrance, far off among the scenes and familiars of youth.