In The Blue Pike | Page 3

A rosary
dropped from the belt of the fat wife of a master workman--she was
decked out like a peacock--and fell just in front of me. It was a costly
ornament, pure gold and Bohemian garnets. I did not let it lie there."
"A miracle!" chuckled Cyriax, but the girl was obliged to conquer a
severe attack of coughing before she could go on with her story.
"The chaplet fairly burned my hand. I would gladly have given it back,
but the woman was no longer before me. Perhaps I might have returned
it, but I won't say so positively. However, there was no time to do it;
the wedding party was coming, and on that account But what is the use
of talking? While I was still gazing, the owner discovered her loss. An

officer seized me, and so I was taken to prison and the next day was
brought before the magistrates. Herr Groland was one of them, and,
since it wasn't certain that I would not have restored the property I
found, he interceded in my behalf. When the others still wished to
punish me, he besought my release because it was my first offence. So
we met, and when I admit that I am grateful to him for it, you know
all."
"H'm," replied Cyriax, giggling, as he nudged his wife in the side and
made remarks concerning what he had just heard which induced even
red- haired Gitta to declare that the loss of his tongue was scarcely a
misfortune.
Kuni indignantly turned her back upon the slanderer and gazed out of
the window again. The Nuremberg Honourables had disappeared, but
several grooms were unbuckling the knapsacks from the horses and
carrying them into the house. The aristocratic travellers were probably
cleansing themselves from the dust of the road before they entered the
taproom.
Kuni thought so, and gazed sometimes into vacancy, sometimes into
her own lap. Her eyes had a dreamy light, for the incident which she
had just related rose before her mind with perfect clearness.
It seemed as though she were gazing a second time at the wedding
procession which was approaching St. Sebald's, and the couple who led
it.
Never had she beheld anything fairer than the bride with the myrtle
wreath on her beautifully formed head, whence a delicate lace veil
floated over her long, thick, golden hair. She could not help gazing at
her as if spellbound. When she moved forward, holding her
bridegroom's hand, she appeared to float over the rice and flowers
strewn in her path to the church--it was in February. As Kuni saw the
bride raise her large blue eyes to her lover's so tenderly and yet so
modestly, and the bridegroom thank her with a long joyous look of love,
she wondered what must be the feelings of a maiden who, so pure, so
full of ardent love, and so fervently beloved in return, was permitted to

approach the house of God, accompanied by a thousand pious wishes,
with the first and only man whom she loved, and to whom she wished
to devote herself for her whole life. Again, as at that time, a burning
thrill ran through her limbs. Then a bitter smile hovered around her
lips.
She had asked herself whether the heart of one who experienced such
joys, to whom such a fate was allotted, would not burst from sheer joy.
Now the wish, the hope, and every new resolve for good or ill were
alike over. At that hour, before the door of St. Sebald's, she had been
capable of all, all, perhaps even the best things, if any one had
cherished her in his heart as Lienhard Groland loved the beautiful
woman at his side.
She could not help remembering the spell with which the sight of those
two had forced her to watch their every movement, to gaze at them, and
them only, as if the world contained nothing else. How often she had
repeated to herself that in that hour she was bewitched, whether by him
or by her she could not decide. As the throng surged forward, she had
been crowded against the woman who lost the rosary. She had not had
the faintest thought of it when the bailiff suddenly snatched her from
her rapturous gazing to stern reality, seizing with a rude grip the hand
that held the jewel. Then, pursued by the reviling and hissing of the
populace, she had been taken to prison.
Now she again saw herself amid the vile rabble assembled there, again
felt how eagerly she inhaled the air as she was led across the courtyard
of the townhall into the presence of the magistrates. Oh, if she could
but take such a long, deep breath of God's pure air