“I do so need more fresh flowers for my character,” the flower-girl continued.  “Where can he be?” The maid went on searching, and kept chuckling to herself.  “What did you say, Rosetta?” the flower-girl asked, shrewishly.  “I say what I always have said,” the maid replied, putting on a very serious, honest face; “the Receiver is a lazy fellow; of course he is lying behind some bush sound asleep.”

My blood tingled with longing to jump down and defend my reputation, when on a sudden a burst of music and loud shouts were heard from the castle.

The flower-girl could stay no longer.  “The people are cheering his Grace,” she said passionately.  “Come, we shall be missed!” And she clapped on her mask in a hurry, and ran in a rage with the maid toward the castle.  The trees and bushes seemed to point after her with long, derisive fingers, the moonlight danced nimbly up and down over her stout figure as though over the key-board of a piano, and thus to the sound of trumpets and kettle-drums she made her exit, like many a singer whom I have seen upon the stage.

I, seated above in my tree, was downright bewildered, and gazed fixedly at the castle; a circle of tall torches upon the steps of the entrance cast a strange glare upon the glittering windows and deep into the garden; the assembled servants were to serenade their master.  In the midst of them stood the gorgeous Porter, like a minister of state, before a music-stand, working away busily at a bassoon.

Just as I had settled myself to listen to the beautiful serenade, the folding-doors leading to the balcony above the entrance parted.  A tall gentleman, very handsome and dignified, in uniform and glittering with orders, stepped out on the balcony, leading by the hand the lovely young Lady fair, dressed in white like a lily in the night, or like the moon in the clear skies.

I could not take my eyes from her, and garden, trees, and fields disappeared before me, as she stood there tall and slender, so wondrously illuminated by the torch-light, now speaking with such grace to the young officer, and now nodding down kindly to the musicians.  The people below were beside themselves with delight, and at last I too could restrain myself no longer, and joined in the cheers with all my might.

But when, soon after, she disappeared from the balcony, one after another the torches below were extinguished and the music-stands cleared away, and the garden around was once more dark, and the trees rustled as before—­then it all became clear to me; I saw that it was really only the aunt who had ordered the flowers of me, that the Lady fair never thought of me and had been married long ago, and that I myself was a big fool.

All this plunged me into an abyss of reflection.  I rolled myself round like a hedgehog on the prickles of my own thoughts.  Snatches of music still reached me now and then from the ball-room—­the clouds floated lonely away above the dim garden.  And there I sat, all through the night, up in the tree, like a night-owl, amid the ruins of my happiness.