. I
have your word and your hand. That is enough. With thanks for your
friendship and your services, I am your faithful kinsman, Gottfried
Nothafft."

IV

Before peace had been made with France, Gottfried lay down to die. He
was buried in the little churchyard by the wall, and a cross was set
upon his grave.

Jason Philip and Theresa had come to the funeral, and stayed for three
days. An examination of her inheritance showed, to Marian's
consternation, that there were not twenty taler in the house, and what
she saw ahead of her was a life of wretchedness and want. Jason Philip's
counsel and his plan were a genuine consolation to her, and his
declaration that he would stand by her to the best of his ability eased
her heart.

It was determined that she was to open a little shop, and Jason advanced
her one hundred taler. All the while he had the air of a made man. He
held his head high, and his fat little cheeks glowed with health. He was
fond of drumming with his fingers on the window pane and of whistling.
The tune he whistled was the Marseillaise, but that tune was not known
in Eschenbach.

Daniel observed carefully his uncle's lips, and whistled the tune after
him. Jason Philip laughed so that his little belly quivered. Then he
remembered that it was a house of mourning, and said: "What a boy!"

But really he did not like the boy. "Our excellent Gottfried does not
seem to have trained him carefully," he remarked once, when Daniel
showed some childish recalcitrance. "The boy needs a strong hand."

Daniel heard these words, and looked scornfully into his uncle's face.

Sunday afternoon, when the coffee had been served, the Schimmelweis
couple was ready to leave. But Daniel was not to be found. The wife of
the inn-keeper called out across the road that she had seen him follow
the organist to church. Marian ran to the church to fetch him. After a
while she returned, and said to Jason Philip, who was waiting: "He's
crouching in the organ loft, and I can't get him to move."

"Can't get him to move?" Jason Philip started up, and his little red
cheeks gleamed with rage. "What does that mean? How can you tolerate
that?" And he himself proceeded to the church to get the disobedient
child.

As he was mounting the organ-loft he met the organist, who laughed and
said: "I suppose you're looking for Daniel? He's still staring at the
organ, as though my bit of playing had bewitched him.