I therefore took
no long time for reflection, but broke off a stout bough from a tree,
and rushed at the white-cloaked figure, shouting "Murder!" so that the
garden rang again.
The painter when he beheld me appear thus unexpectedly took to his
heels, screaming frightfully. I screamed louder still. He ran toward
the house, and I after him, and I had very nearly caught him, when I
became entangled in some plaguy trailing vines, and measured my length
upon the ground just before the front door.
"So it is you, is it, you fool!" I heard some one say above me. "You
frightened me nearly to death." I picked myself up, and when I had
wiped my eyes clear of dust, I saw before me the lady's-maid, from
whose shoulders the white cloak was just falling. "But," said I, in
confusion, "was not the painter here?" "He was," she replied, saucily;
"at least his cloak was, which he put around me when I met him at the
gate, because I was cold." The Lady fair, hearing the noise, sprang
up from the lounge and came out to us. My heart beat as if it would
burst; but what was my dismay when I looked at her, and instead of the
lovely Lady fair saw an entire stranger!
She was a rather tall, stout lady, with a haughty, hooked nose and
high-arched black eyebrows, very beautiful and imposing. She looked
at me so majestically out of her big, glittering eyes that I was
overwhelmed with awe. So confused was I that I could only make bow
after bow, and at last I attempted to kiss her hand.
Pages:
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388