ggest, 'twere fair and just
To spare the lovely day your lust,
And spare to me the further trouble.
You are not miserly, I trust?
I rub my hands, in expectation tender--

(_He places the casket in the press, and locks it again_.)

Now quick, away!
The sweet young maiden to betray,
So that by wish and will you bend her;
And you look as though
To the lecture-hall you were forced to go,--
As if stood before you, gray and loath,
Physics and Metaphysics both!
But away! [_Exeunt_.

MARGARET (_with a lamp_)

It is so close, so sultry, here!

(_She opens the window_)

And yet 'tis not so warm outside.
I feel, I know not why, such fear!--
Would mother came!--where can she bide?
My body's chill and shuddering,--
I'm but a silly, fearsome thing!

(_She begins to sing while undressing_)

There was a King in Thule,
Was faithful till the grave,--
To whom his mistress, dying,
A golden goblet gave.

Naught was to him more precious;
He drained it at every bout:
His eyes with tears ran over,
As oft as he drank thereout.

When came his time of dying,
The towns in his land he told,
Naught else to his heir denying
Except the goblet of gold.

He sat at the royal banquet
With his knights of high degree,
In the lofty hall of his fathers
In the Castle by the Sea.

There stood the old carouser,
And drank the last life-glow;
And hurled the hallowed goblet
Into the tide below.

He saw it plunging and filling,
And sinking deep in the sea:
Then fell his eyelids forever,
And never more drank he!

(_She opens the press in order to arrange her clothes, and perceives
the casket of jewels_.)

How comes that lovely casket here to me?
I locked the press, most certainly.
'Tis truly wonderful! What can within it be?
Perhaps 'twas brought by some one as a pawn,
And mother gave a loan thereon?
And here there hangs a key to fit:
I have a mind to open it.
What is that? God in Heaven! Whence came
Such things? Never beheld I aught so fair!
Rich ornaments, such as a noble dame
On highest holidays might wear!
How would the pearl-chain suit my hair?
Ah, who may all this splendor own?

(_She adorns herself with the jewelry, and steps before the
mirror_.)

Were but the ear-rings mine, alone!
One has at once another air.
What helps one'