ind.
I rode past a group of country-people, who made way for a man of
consequence, reverently, and with bared heads. I rode on, and gazed
with greedy eyes and a palpitating; heart on this my quondam shadow
which I had now borrowed from a stranger, yes, from an enemy.

The man went carelessly near me, and even whistled a tune--he on foot,
I on horseback; a dizziness seized me; the temptation was too great;
I suddenly turned the reins, clapped spurs to the horse, and struck at
full speed into a side-path. But I carried not off the shadow, which
at the turning glided from the horse and awaited its lawful possessor
on the high road. I was compelled with shame to turn back. The man in
the gray coat, when he had calmly finished his tune, laughed at me,
set the shadow right again for me and informed me that it would
hang fast and remain with me only when I was disposed to become the
rightful proprietor. "I hold you," continued he, "fast by the shadow,
and you cannot escape me. A rich man, like you, needs a shadow;
it cannot be otherwise, and you only are to blame that you did not
perceive that sooner."

I continued my journey on the same road; the comforts and the splendor
of life again surrounded me; I could move about free and conveniently,
since I possessed a shadow, although only a borrowed one; and I
everywhere inspired the respect which riches command. But I carried
death in my heart. My strange companion, who gave himself out as
the unworthy servant of the richest man in the world, possessed
an extraordinary professional readiness, prompt and clever beyond
comparison, the very model of a valet for a rich man, but he stirred
not from my side, perpetually debating with me and ever manifesting
his confidence that, at length, were it only to be rid of him, I
would resolve to settle the affair of the shadow. He had become as
burdensome to me as he was hateful. I was even in fear of him. He had
made me dependent on him. He held me, after he had conducted me
back into the glory of the world from which I had fled. I was almost
obliged to tolerate his eloquence, and felt that he was in the right.
A rich man must have a shadow, and, as I desired to command the rank
which he had contrived again to make necessary to me, I saw but one
issue. By this, however, I stood fast: after having sacrificed my
love, after my life had been blighted, I would never sign away my soul
to this creature, for all the shadows in the world. I knew not