mansion. I heard the same sound more
distinctly. I sat down with a sorrowful heart upon a bank immediately
opposite the front door, in a sunny spot. It appeared to me as if I
heard the invisible imp laughing insultingly. The key was turned in the
door, which opened, and the forest-master walked out with papers in his
hand. I felt something like a mist around my eyes--I looked round--and,
oh horrible! the man in the grey coat was sitting close to me, looking on
me with a satanic smile. He had drawn his wishing cap over my head. At
his feet my shadow and his own lay peacefully one against the other; he
was playing carelessly with the well-known parchment, which he held in
his hand; and while the forest-master was walking backwards and forwards
in the shade of the arbour, he bent himself familiarly to my ear, and
whispered to me these words:--

"Now, then, you have at last accepted my offer, and so we set two heads
under one cap. Very good! very good! But pray give me my charm
again--you do not want it any more, and are too honourable a man to keep
what does not belong to you: no thanks--I assure you I lent it to you
from my heart." He took it gently from my hand, put it into his pocket,
laughed insultingly at me, and so loudly, that the forest-master looked
round attracted by the noise. I sat there as if I had been petrified.

"You must agree," he rejoined, "that such a cap is much more convenient.
It does not cover its possessor alone, but his shadow also, and as many
people besides as he likes to have with him. Look, now, to-day I get two
of ye." He laughed again. "You must know, Schlemihl, that what is not
done by fair means at first, may be enforced at last; I still thought you
would have bought the trifle. Take back your bride (there is yet time),
and send Rascal to swing on the gallows; that is an easy matter while we
have a rope at hand. Hearken, I give you the cap into the bargain."

The mother came forth, and this conversation followed. "What is my Mina
doing?"--"Weeping."--"Simple child! but can it not be altered?"--"No,
indeed."--"But to give her so soon to another--O husband! you are cruel
to your own child!"--"Mother! you don't see clearly. Even before she has
wept out her childish tears, when she finds herself the wife of a rich
and noble man, she will be consoled for her sorrows, as if awakened from
a dream. She will thank Heaven and us; and that you will see."--"God
grant it!"--"She alr