And I need your true soul to help me to shake off the burden which is crushing me to the earth and choking me.

Help me to bear it, or I shall come to a bad end--I shall follow her who died here in this very chamber." My soul had ever stood open to her and so I told her right heartily, and her face became once more as it had been of old; and albeit those things she had to tell me were not indeed comforting, still I could in all honesty bid her to be of good heart; and I presently felt that to unburden herself of all that had weighed upon her these last few weeks, did her as much good as a bath.

For it still was a pain to her to see her mother cooing like a pigeon round her new mate.

She herself was full of his praises, albeit this man, well brought up and trained to good manners, would ever abide by the old customs of the old craftsmen, and his venerable mother likewise held fast by them, so that his wife had striven in vain to change the ways of the house.

Thus master and mistress, son and daughter, foreman and apprentice, sewing man and maid all ate, as they had ever done, at the same table.