It was plain
that Sir Kasimir had well and generously done his best to protect the
helpless twins, and he sent respectful but cordial greetings to their
mother. These however were far less heeded by her than the coldness
of her uncle's letter. She had drifted beyond the reckoning of her
kindred, and they were sending her her property and bridal linen, as
if they had done with her, and had lost their child in the robber-
baron's wife. Yet at the end there was a touch of old times in
offering a blessing, should she still value it, and the hopes that
heaven and the saints would comfort her; "for surely, thou poor
child, thou must have suffered much, and, if thou wiliest still to
write to thy city kin, thine aunt would rejoice to hear that thou and
thy babes were in good health."
Precise grammarian and scribe as was Uncle Gottfried, the lapse from
the formal Sie to the familiar Du went to his niece's heart.
Whenever her little ones left her any leisure, she spent this her
first wedding-day in writing so earnest and loving a letter as, in
spite of mediaeval formality, must assure the good burgomaster that,
except in having suffered much and loved much, his little Christina
was not changed since she had left him.
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