Common evenings, which were of no mark to him,
he spent with the Spiesz folks in the little house by the river, or else
in the Gentlemen's tavern in the Frohnwage; for albeit none met there
but such as belonged to the noble families of the town, and learned men,
and artists of mark, Adam Heyden the organist was held as their equal
and a right welcome guest.

And now as touching our grand-uncle and guardian the Knight Sir Sebald
Im Hoff.

Many an one will understand how that my fear of him grew greater after
that I one evening by mishap chanced to go into his bed chamber, and
there saw a black coffin wherein he was wont to sleep each night, as
it were in a bed. It was easy to see in the man himself that some deep
sorrow or heavy sin gnawed at his heart, and nevertheless he was one of
the stateliest old gentlemen I have met in a long life. His face seemed
as though cast in metal, and was of wondrous fine mould, but deadly and
unchangefully pale. His snowy hair fell in long locks over his collar of
sable fur, and his short beard, cut in a point, was likewise of a silver
whiteness. When he stood up he was much taller than common, and he
walked with princelike dignity. For many years he had ceased to go to
other folks' houses, nevertheless many others sought him out. In every
family of rank, excepting in his own, the Im Hoff family, wherever there
was a manchild or a maid growing up they were brought to him; but of
them all there were but two who dare come nigh him without fear. These
were my brother Herdegen and Ursula Tetzel; and throughout my young days
she was the one soul whom mine altogether shut out.

Notwithstanding I must for justice sake confess that she grew up to be a
well-favored damsel. Besides this, she was the only offspring of a rich
and noble house. She went from school a year before Ann and I did, and
after that her father, a haughty and eke a surly man, who had long since
lost his wife, her mother, prided himself on giving her such attires as
might have beseemed the daughter of a Count or a Prince-Elector. And the
brocades and fine furs and costly chains and clasps she wore graced her
lofty, round shape exceeding well, and she lorded it so haughtily in
them that the worshipful town-council were moved to put forth an order
against over much splendor in women's weed.

She was, verily and indeed, the last damsel I could have wished to see
brought home as mistress of the "Schopperhof," and nevertheless I k