Rieter, the town physician and our doctor, came to see me, he stayed a
long time, as though he could not bear to depart, standing in front of
the portrait; and when he turned to me again, his face was quite red with
sorrowful feeling--for he had been a favorite friend of my father, at
Padua--and he exclaimed: "What a fortunate child art thou, little
Margery!"

I must have looked at him puzzled enough, for no one had ever esteemed me
fortunate, unless it were Cousin Maud or the Waldstromers in the forest;
and Master Paul must have observed my amazement, for he went on. "Yea,
a happy child art thou; for so are all babes, maids or boys, who come
into the world after their father's death." As I gazed into his face,
no less astonished than before, he laid the gold knob of his cane against
his nose and said: "Remember, little simpleton, the good God would not be
what he is, would not be a man of honor--God forgive the words--if he did
not take a babe whom He had robbed of its father before it had seen the
light or had one proof of his love under His own special care. Mark what
I say, child. Is it a small thing to be the ward of a guardian who is
not only Almighty but true above all truth?" And those words have
followed me through all my life till this very hour.




CHAPTER II.

Thus passed our childhood, as I have already said, in very great
happiness; and by the time that my brothers had left the leading strings
far behind them, and were studying their 'Donatus', Cousin Maud was
teaching me to read and write, and that with much mirth and the most