h-heeled, wooden-soled shoes made her limping gait more
unsteady still. And yet, as she walked to the church beside her sister
to the sound of music and the firing of pistols, she looked so charming
that all wished she had been the bride instead of the bride's-maid.

Who knows where were the manor-house farmer's sons while he sat with
his guests at the wedding-table? No one thought of them. Once only
Vefela sank into a deep brown study and gazed fixedly into vacancy. She
seemed to see nothing of what was going on around her: her look seemed
to pierce the walls and to wander searching into space. She was
thinking of her brothers that were gone.

Not two months later, Melchior, the third son of the manor-house
farmer, was married also. At Agatha's wedding he had made the
acquaintance of the only daughter of the innkeeper of the Angel, in
Ergenzingen, and engaged himself to her. Although Melchior was still
very young and scarcely a year older than Vefela, the wedding was
hurried as much as possible, lest he might also be forced to go to the
wars. Melchior left the village, and Vefela was left at home alone. The
mother's health failed. A silent grief was gnawing at her life. She
always wished to induce her husband to sell all he had and live with
one of his married children; but his answers were so harsh that she was
forced to drop the subject. These were sad times for Vefela, for she
was always called upon to mediate and make peace. Her mother's
ill-health increased her fretfulness; and she often said that if her
father were still living she would leave her husband. These two people
had lived to see the second generation which issued from their union,
and yet they could not come to understand each other: the older they
grew the more did their heart-burnings and bickerings increase. Vefela
always brought matters around, and wore an air of gayety and happiness;
but in private she often wept bitterly over her sad lot and that of her
parents, and made many vows never to marry. She knew no one to whom she
would have devoted herself; and then she saw how much she was needed in
the house to prevent the smouldering flames from bursting through the
ashes. It is written that God visits the sins of the fathers upon the
children. Such is the case particularly with evil marriages. The heart
that is without love to its father and its mother is exposed to many
dangers.

The death of Vefela's mother suddenly made her father feel how dea