The master spoke first, bidding her welcome to his dwelling, in accents of truth but with all due respect, and never speaking of it, as is the wont of his class, as “humble” or “poor,” and as he was about to help her out of the litter I could see her face brighten, and this assured me that she would let bygones be bygones, as they say, and declare to Master Pernhart in plain words to what intent and purpose she had knocked at his door.  By the time she was in the best chamber, the last sour curl had disappeared from her mouth; and indeed all was snug and seemly therein; Dame Giovanna being well-skilled in giving things a neat appearance, well pleasing to the eye.

Pernhart meanwhile had said but little, and his face was still dark, almost solemn of aspect.  The master’s mother again, to whom Gertrude had been all-in-all, and who had done what she could to speed her marriage, could read the other woman’s heart, and understood how great had been the sacrifice she had taken upon herself.  There was no trace of the old grudge in her speech, and it sounded not ill when, as she put my aunt’s cushions straight, she said she could not envy her, forasmuch as she the elder was thus permitted to be of service to the younger.  When Pernhart presently quitted the chamber, perchance to don more seemly attire the two old women sat in eager talk; and if the lady were thin and sickly and the craftsman’s mother stout and sturdy, yet were there many points of resemblance between them.  Both, for certain, loved to rule, and as I watched them, seeing each shoot out her nether lip if the other spoke a word to cross her, I found it right good sport; but at the same time I was amazed to hear how truly old Dame Pernhart understood and spoke of Ann.  I had indeed hitherto seen many a thing in my friend with other eyes, and yet I could not accuse the good woman of injustice, or deny that the coppersmith’s step-daughter, from knowing me and from keeping company with us, had grown up with manners and desires unlike those of ever another clerk’s or even a craftsman’s daughter.

Albeit she strove to hide her deep discomfort, the old woman said, she could by no means succeed.  A household was a body, and any member of it who could not be content with its ways was ill at ease with the rest, and made it hard for them to do it such service and pleasure as they would fain do.  Ann fulfilled her every duty, down to the very least of them, by reason that she had a steadfast spirit and great dominion over herself; but she got small thanks, and by her own fault, inasmuch as she did it joylessly.  To look for bright cheer from her was to seek grapes on a birch-tree; and whereas the grandmother had till lately hoped to find in this gentle maid one who might fill the place of her who was no more, she could now only wish that she might find some other home.