ouse was so melancholy that it went to my very soul. 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. But she snatched
it from me, and said something in Italian to her maid which I could
not understand.

Meanwhile, the racket I had made had aroused the entire neighborhood.
Dogs barked, children screamed, and men's voices were heard,
approaching the garden. The Lady gave me another glance, as though she
would have liked to pierce me through and through with fiery bullets,
then turned hastily and went into the room, with a haughty, forced
laugh, slamming the door directly in my face. The maid seized me by
the sleeve and pulled me toward the garden gate.

"Your stupidity is beyond belief!" she said in the most spiteful way
as we went along. I too was furious. "What the devil did you mean,"
I said, "by telling me to come here?" "That's just it!" exclaimed
the girl. "My Countess favored you so--first threw flowers out of
the window to you, sang songs--and _this_ is her reward! But there is
absolutely nothing to be d