king so hard that you did not even hear me
call after you!--How you look!" she cried in sudden apprehension.

"I do not know of anything. How do I?"

"Worn out! Terribly! Have you been revelling all night?"

"Revelling!" I murmured with a smile, and relapsed into my revery.

"But what is the matter with you? Erwin!"

"I don't sleep well."

"Are you writing verses again all night long?"

I shook my head.

"And in what condition you come along here! You neither see nor hear
anything!"

I grew impatient and said, "I am thinking; excuse me!" and went on
quickly, paying no more attention to what she called after me.

I entered the gate of the park, and stopped. My eye took in the welcome
sight of all the familiar things, the sparkling sandy paths, the
silvery sheen of the grass, the dark shrubbery, the ragged umbelliform
palms, the ceaselessly foaming gush of water, the feathery forest of
bamboo, the blossoming of the giant trees--I breathed the heat-refined,
insinuating air, heavy with perfume, and suddenly I felt my heart
relieved, and delighted, and secure, as though I were entering my home.

I went right through the garden, past the pool, to the bamboo alley.
There came Mara from the brightness at the other end, slowly through
the green vault to meet me. So long as she was at a distance she looked
at me. I saw only the penetrating, mighty gleam of her eyes, and
nothing more; almost as unbearable as two stars they shone out from
under the shade of her great straw hat. Approaching, she cast down her
eyes; and now the winsome swaying of her tall figure, as she easily
moved along, caused such a rush of rapture to surge through me that I
would have prostrated myself on the ground, merely that she might pass
over me. But I restrained myself. I said, "God greet you," and stepped
up to her side. Without another word we wandered on together.

To adapt my pace to hers, to be able with my hand to stroke the soft
folds of her garment, to have the privilege of gazing at the sharp
profile of her white face, the shade of her dark lashes, the pale
redness of her lips--this happiness was so great that for a long time
the desire to speak did not come over me.

Finally I asked, and my heart beat anxiously, "Who are you? Are you
called Mara? Whence do you come? Counsel me!"

Now she raised her hand slightly, with a deprecating gesture; we went
silently on again, and I was not again able to escape the dominance of
her will.