deferred his greeting. Yet the surprise I had plotted was uppermost in
my mind, and I craved of him right duteously that he would grant me my
will. Whereupon his eyebrows, which met above his nose, were darkly
knit, and he gave me to wit, shortly and well-nigh harshly, that he would
abide by his own.

At this the blood rose to my head, and a wrathful answer was indeed on my
tongue when I minded me of the evening when we had come together, and I
asked of him calmly whether he verily deemed that I was so foolish or
evil-minded as to hinder him in a pious and kindly office if I had not
some worthy reason. And herein I had hit on the right way; he recovered
himself, his brow cleared, and saying only "Women, women!" he shook his
head and clasped me to him; and as I fervently returned his kiss, and
opened my chamber door, he called after me: "We will see in the morning,
but as early as may be."

When I presently was in my bed I minded me of the carol the little ones
were to sing; and then I remembered my own school-days, and how the
Carthusian Sisters had explained to us those words of Scripture: "And the
times shall be fulfilled." They were written, to be sure, of a special
matter, of the birth of our Saviour and Redeemer; yet I applied them to
myself and Gotz, and wondered in my heart whether indeed anything that
had ever befallen me in life, whether for joy or for sorrow, had been in
vain, and how matters might have stood with me now if, as a young
unbroken thing, or ever I had gone through the school of life, I had been
plighted to this man, whom the Almighty had from the first fated to be my
husband. If the wilful blood of the Schoppers, unquelled as it had then
been, had come into strife with Gotz's iron will, there would have been
more than enough of hard hitting on both sides, and how easily might all
our happiness have been wrecked thereby.