But
she, like Arethusa, was changed into a fountain of tears, which at the
sound of my voice flowed still more copiously and at my approach burst
forth in torrents.
"And you," again grimly began the Forest-master, "and you, with
unparalleled impudence, have made no scruple to deceive these and
myself, and you give out that you love her whom you brought into this
predicament. See, there, how she weeps and writhes! Oh, horrible!
horrible!"
I had to such a degree lost my composure that, talking like one
crazed, I began--"And, after all, a shadow is nothing but a shadow;
one can do very well without that, and it is not worth while to make
such a riot about it." But I felt so sharply the baselessness of what
I was saying that I stopped of myself, without his deigning me an
answer, and I then added--"What one has lost at one time may be found
again at another!"
He fiercely rebuked me "Confess to me, sir, confess to me, how became
you deprived of your shadow!"
I was compelled again to lie. "A rude fellow one day trod so heavily
on my shadow that he rent a great hole in it. I have only sent it to
be mended, for money can do much, and I was to have received it back
yesterday."
"Good, sir, very good!" replied the Forest-master. "You solicit my
daughter's hand; others do the same. I have, as her father, to care
for her. I give you three days in which you may seek for a shadow.
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