I had from the first entertained a special dislike of this painter on account of his nonsensical talk.  But now I fell into a rage with him.  “The low fellow is certainly intoxicated again,” I thought; “he has got the key from the maid, and intends to surprise, and perhaps to assault, the Lady fair.”  And I rushed precipitately through the low door, which was still open, into the garden.

When I entered, all was quiet and lonely.  The folding-doors of the summer-house were open, and a ray of lamplight issuing from it played upon the grass and flowers near.  Even from a distance I could see the interior.  In a magnificent apartment, hung with green and partially illumined by a lamp with a white shade, the lovely Lady fair with her guitar was reclining on a silken lounge, never dreaming, in her innocence, of the danger without.

I had not much time, however, to look, for I perceived the white figure among the shrubbery, stealthily approaching the summer-house from the opposite side, while the song floating on the air from the house was so melancholy that it went to my very soul.  I therefore took no long time for reflection, but broke off a stout bough from a tree, and rushed at the white-cloaked figure, shouting “Murder!” so that the garden rang again.

The painter when he beheld me appear thus unexpectedly took to his heels, screaming frightfully.  I screamed louder still.  He ran toward the house, and I after him, and I had very nearly caught him, when I became entangled in some plaguy trailing vines, and measured my length upon the ground just before the front door.

“So it is you, is it, you fool!” I heard some one say above me.  “You frightened me nearly to death.”  I picked myself up, and when I had wiped my eyes clear of dust, I saw before me the lady’s-maid, from whose shoulders the white cloak was just falling.  “But,” said I, in confusion, “was not the painter here?” “He was,” she replied, saucily; “at least his cloak was, which he put around me when I met him at the gate, because I was cold.”  The Lady fair, hearing the noise, sprang up from the lounge and came out to us.  My heart beat as if it would burst; but what was my dismay when I looked at her, and instead of the lovely Lady fair saw an entire stranger!

She was a rather tall, stout lady, with a haughty, hooked nose and high-arched black eyebrows, very beautiful and imposing.  She looked at me so majestically out of her big, glittering eyes that I was overwhelmed with awe.  So confused was I that I could only make bow after bow, and at last I attempted to kiss her hand.  But she snatched it from me, and said something in Italian to her maid which I could not understand.

Meanwhile, the racket I had made had aroused the entire neighborhood.  Dogs barked, children screamed, and men’s voices were heard, approaching the garden.  The Lady gave me another glance, as though she would have liked to pierce me through and through with fiery bullets, then turned hastily and went into the room, with a haughty, forced laugh, slamming the door directly in my face.  The maid seized me by the sleeve and pulled me toward the garden gate.