Howbeit, when I had presently closed that good old man's eyes, I would
not suffer myself to think thus of the twain, by reason that I could not
endure to mar my remembrance of that other, to whom, after all, we owed
much thanks.

The old organist had received the Holy Sacrament at mid-day from the hand
of his old friend Nikolas Laister, the Vicar of Saint Sebald's. He would
have no one to see him save ourselves and Hans Richter the churchwarden,
a man after his own heart, and the Pernharts; and at first he marked not
our coming, inasmuch as he was just then giving a toy to the deaf-mute
boy, which he had carved with his own hand, and Dame Giovanna had much
pains to carry away the child, who had cast himself on the old man with
passionate love. Everything that moved the little one's soul he was
forced, as it were, to express with unreasoning violence; and now, when
the child was so boisterous as to disturb the peace of the others, his
mother took him by the hand to lead him away into another chamber; but
the dying man signed to him with a look which none may describe, and that
moment the little fellow set his teeth hard and stood in silence by the
door. Whereupon the old man nodded to him as though the child had done
him some kindness.

Then he shut his eyes for a good while, and presently asked for some of
the fine Bacharach wine which Cousin Maud had sent him; but his voice
could scarce be heard. Ann reached him the glass, and at a sign from him
she tasted of it; then he drank it with much comfort while Dame Giovanna
held him sitting. The old, sweet smile was on his lips, and as he yet
held the stem of the glass with a shaking hand, and suffered that I
should help him, he cried in a clear voice: "Once more, Prosit, Elsie!
You have waited long enough up there for your old man. And Prosit,
likewise, to my dear old home, the fair city of Nuremberg." Then he took