not seen battles
and storms, revolutions and bloodshed? The prattle of children was
preferable.

Gretchen's grandmother, Fraeu Schwarz, owned the house; it was all that
barricaded her from poverty's wolves, and, what with sundry taxes and
repairs and tenants who paid infrequently, it was little enough.
Whatever luxuries entered at number forty were procured by Gretchen
herself. At present the two stories were occupied; the second by a
malter and his brood of children, the third by a woman who was partially
bedridden. The lower or ground floor of four rooms she reserved for
herself. As a matter of fact the forward room, with its huge middle-age
fireplace and the great square of beamed and plastered walls and stone
flooring, was sizable for all domestic purposes. Gretchen's pallet stood
in a small alcove and the old woman's bed by the left of the fire.

Gretchen opened the door, which was unlocked. There was no light in the
hall. She pressed her lover in her arms, kissed him lightly, and pushed
him into the living-room. A log smoldered dimly on the irons. Gretchen
ran forward, turned over the log, lighted two candles, then kissed the
old woman seated in the one comfortable chair. The others were simply
three-legged stools. There was little else in the room, save a poor
reproduction of the Virgin Mary.

"Here I am, grandmother!"

"And who is here with you?" sharply but not unkindly.

"My man!" cried Gretchen gaily, her eyes bright as the candle flames.

"Bring him near me."

Gretchen gathered up two stools and placed them on either side of her
grandmother and motioned to the vintner to sit down. He did so, easily
and without visible embarrassment, even though the black eyes plunged a
glance into his.

Her hair was white and thin, her nose aquiline, her lips fallen in, a
cobweb of wrinkles round her eyes, down her cheeks, under her chin. But
her sight was undimmed.

"Where are you from? You are not a Dreiberger."

"From the north, grandmother," forcing a smile to his lips.

The reply rather gratified her.

"Your name."

"Leopold Dietrich, a vintner by trade."

"You speak like a Hanoverian or a Prussian."

"I have passed some time in both countries. I have wandered about a good
deal."

"Give me your hand."

The vintner looked surprised for a moment. Gretchen approved. So he gave
the old woman his left hand. The grandmother smoothed it out upon her
own and bent her shrewd eyes. Silence. Gretchen could h