le to give you satisfaction."

"I thank you, dear Rasselwitz, for reminding me of it," replied Bona;
"but it has already grown dark," she continued, looking round; "we had
better order a light at the gardener's."

"Admirable!" muttered Rasselwitz; "she sends me away that she may be
alone with him in the dark;"--and he hurried off with the speed of an
arrow, to be back so much the sooner. In Tausdorf the same idea was
stirring; but when he secretly asked himself the question, whether he
did or did not like it, he could obtain no decided answer.

After all, the fears of the one and the imaginings of the other were
alike idle. The fair Bona kept at her old distance from Tausdorf, and
entered into the most indifferent talk in the world with him, inquiring
after a multitude of Prague ladies, whom he, indeed, knew by name, but
of whom he could give no farther information. In addition to this,
as Tausdorf could hear, she was playing with the silver lids of the
wine-flagons, as the hands are accustomed to do when the mind is
absent. This was all but an annoyance to the knight, and if he had not
found some pleasure in listening to the melodious voice of the
questioner, he would have experienced a real tediousness even in the
familiar darkness and in the neighbourhood of such a captivating
creature.

At length Rasselwitz appeared with the gardener, who hung a large
mirror-lamp of Venetian glass upon a branch of the oleander, and again
retired. The glasses were filled afresh, while Bona wound about the
good Tausdorf with the finest arts of conversation, and contrived to
flatter him so sweetly, and at the same time to inspire him with such
respect, that he was unable to break from the magic circle, although
his correctness of feeling warned him betimes to fly from the danger
before he was lost in it.

During this delightful talk, the wine, like a balmy oil, glided down
the knights' throats, sweet and powerful; but its effects were
manifested in the two with a very striking difference. While Rasselwitz
grew continually sulkier and charier of his words, and at last became
downright sleepy, Tausdorf's spirits were more and more awakened and
joyful. A flippant coquetry, at other times hateful to him and foreign
to his disposition, now prevailed in his manners to the fair stranger,
who knew how to turn the well-polished diamond of her spirit so nimbly
to and fro, that from its hundred points the flashes struck blindingly
upon Taus