possess her likeness in a picture; and he sent hither to that end a
master of good fame, of the guild of painters in Venice. We owed this
good limner thanks for many a pleasant hour. Sir Giacomo Bellini was a
youth of right merry wit, knowing many Italian ditties, and who made good
pastime for us while we sat before him; for I likewise must be limned,
inasmuch as Cousin Maud would have it so, and the painter's eye was
greatly pleased by my yellow hair.

Whereas he could speak never a word of German, it was our part to talk
with him in Italian, and this exercise to me came not amiss. Also I
could scarce have had a better master to teach me than Giacomo Bellini,
who set himself forthwith to win my heart and turn my head; nay, and he
might have done so, but that he confessed from the first that he had a
fair young wife in Venice, albeit he was already craving for some new
love.

Thus through him again I learned how light a touch is needed to overthrow
a man's true faith; and when I minded me of Herdegen and Ann, and of this
Giacomo--who was nevertheless a goodly and well-graced man--and his young
wife, meseemed that the woman who might win the love of a highly-gifted
soul must ofttimes pay for that great joy with much heaviness and
heartache.

Howbeit, I mind me in right true love of the mirthful spirit and manifold
sportiveness which marked our fellowship with the Italian limner; and
after that I had once given him plainly and strongly to understand that
the heart of a Nuremberg damsel was no light thing or plaything, and her
very lips a sanctuary which her husband should one day find pure, all
went well betwixt us.