All around me here was dark and lonely.  A tall aspen quivered and kept whispering with its silver leaves.  The music from the castle was heard at intervals, and now and then there were voices in the garden; sometimes they passed quite near me, and then all would be still again.

My heart beat fast.  I had a strange uncomfortable sensation as if I were a robber.  I stood for a long time stock-still, leaning against the tree and listening; but when no one appeared I could bear it no longer.  I hung my basket on my arm and clambered up into the pear-tree to breathe a purer air.

The music of the dance floated up to me over the tree-tops.  I overlooked the entire garden and gazed directly into the brilliantly illuminated windows of the castle.  Chandeliers glittered there like galaxies of stars; a multitude of gaily-dressed gentlemen and ladies wandered and waltzed and whirled about unrecognizable, like the gay figures of a magic-lantern; at times some of them leaned out of the windows and looked down into the garden.  In front of the castle the brilliant light gilded the grass, the shrubbery, and the trees, so that the flowers and the birds seemed to be aroused by it.  All around and below me, however, the garden lay black and still.

“She is dancing there now,” I thought to myself up in the tree,” and has long since forgotten you and your flowers.  All are gay; not a human being cares for you in the least.  And thus it is with me, always and everywhere.  Every one has his little nook marked out for him on this earth, his warm hearth, his cup of coffee, his wife, his glass of wine in the evening, and is perfectly happy; even the Porter with his big nose is content.  For me there is no place, I seem to be just too late everywhere; the world has not a bit of need of me.”

As I was philosophizing thus, I suddenly heard something rustle on the grass below me.  Two soft voices were speaking together in a low tone.  In a moment the foliage of the shrubbery was parted, and the lady’s-maid’s little face appeared among the leaves, peering about on all sides.  The moonlight sparkled in her saucy eyes as they peeped out.  I held my breath and stared down at her.  Before long the flower-girl did actually appear among the trees, just as the maid had described her to me yesterday.  My heart throbbed as if it would burst.  She had on a mask, and seemed to be gazing around in surprise.  Somehow she did not look to me as slender and graceful as she had been.  At last she reached the tree, and took off her mask.  It was the other—­the elder lady!

How glad I was, when I had recovered from the first shock, that I was up here in safety!  How in the world did she chance to come here?  If the dear, lovely Lady fair should happen to come at this instant for her flowers, there would be a fine to-do!  I could have cried for vexation at the whole affair.

Meanwhile the disguised flower-girl beneath me began:  “It is so stifling hot in the ball-room, I had to come out to cool myself in this lovely open air.”  Thereupon she fanned herself with her mask and puffed and blew.  In the bright moonlight I could plainly see how swollen were the cords of her neck; she looked very angry and quite scarlet in the face.  The lady’s maid was all the while searching behind every bush, as if she were looking for a lost pin.