The dance in the still, clear air was charming, and
my heart within me laughed to see how the slender girls and the
lady's-maid glided among the trees with arms upraised like heathen
wood-nymphs, and kept time to the music with their castanets. At last
I could no longer restrain myself; I joined their ranks, and danced
away merrily, still fiddling all the time.
I had been hopping about thus for some minutes, not noticing that the
others were beginning to be tired and were dropping out of the
dance, when I felt some one twitch me by the coat-tail. It was the
lady's-maid. "Don't be a fool," she said under her breath; "you are
jumping about like a kid! Read your note, and come soon; the beautiful
young Countess awaits you." She slipped out of the garden in the
twilight and vanished among the vineyards.
My heart beat fast; I longed to follow her. Fortunately, a waiter was
just lighting the lantern over the garden gate. I took out my note,
which contained a somewhat rudely penciled plan of the gate and the
streets leading to it, just as I had been directed by the lady's-maid,
and in addition the words "Eleven o'clock, at the little door."
Two long hours to wait! Nevertheless I should have set out
immediately, for I could not stay still, had not the painter, who had
brought me hither, rushed up. "Did you speak to the girl?" he asked.
"I cannot see her now. It was the German Countess's maid.
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