ncholy yearning for home which would, on this particular evening,
have oppressed most youths, if compelled to spend it away from their
own people. He had sent off presents to his parents and sisters two
days ago, and this very evening expected a Christmas box from them,
which, however, he felt no impatience about. No one could care less for
any addition to his possessions than he did; indeed, since he had lost
the one thing to which he had passionately clung, he had grown
indifferent to all besides.

He stood for a while before the equestrian statue of the great elector,
who in his snow mantle looked even more majestic and spectral than
usual against the pale winter sky. Below, the stream, hemmed in by ice
on either side, flowed darkly and silently on, and in one of the barges
the bargeman had already lighted up a small Christmas tree, which sent
out a radiance through the open door. A couple of red-cheeked children
were standing by the lowly table, one blowing a penny trumpet, the
other eating an apple, and the solitary observer on the bridge might
have stood there long in contemplation of this humble idyll but that
the human stream swept him along with it, and landed him in the very
centre of the busy noisy Christmas market going on in the Schlossplatz.

He walked awhile up and down the chief passages between the booths,
looking at the cheerful traffic of buyers and sellers, listening to the
chattering of the monkeys, and the shrill screams of boys advertising
their various wares; and silently he sighed, reflecting that he had
positively no connection with the world in which the festival was so
joyously kept, that it would be all one to him if he were suddenly
transported to Sirius, amongst whose inhabitants he could not feel more
alone than here. Then he suddenly resolved to cheer up, and actually
hummed the tune "I think in the olden days." A garrulous saleswoman in
a booth of fancy-goods now interrupted him, entreating him to look out
some pretty trifle for his "lady-wife." At that he hurriedly turned
off, and made for one of the less frequented alleys where small dealers
were offering their penny-worths as bargains.

He had not proceeded far when a singular spectacle caught his eye.
Before a booth of cheap toys stood a lady in an elegant fur-trimmed
polonaise, such as were then worn, a square Polish hat on her head, and
a thick veil drawn over her face to protect her from the snow, so that
there was no seeing he