of the pungent
odour that escaped from it, and even as he inhaled the contents, light
seemed once more to flood the darkness, and very erect, and with
a dignity of which he had not hitherto thought himself capable, he
listened to Rosalie's further words.

He grew very pale, and it was with difficulty that he restrained
himself, but he did not interrupt her as, forced by the power of the
elixir, she went on to declare, that she had accepted his offer of
marriage merely because he was sufficiently presentable, notwithstanding
his humble origin, to enable her to walk or ride with him about the
city without feeling humiliated; that she had hoped and expected to find
great wealth by means of which as his wife, she could lead the life that
she enjoyed, and be able also to help her father to bring up her younger
brothers and sisters in a fashion befitting their rank; that on
the contrary she had found him only rich enough to secure her own
comfortable existence, and for this she had chained herself to a turtle
dove whose eternal cooing was beginning to weary her beyond endurance;
that now her last hope of the riches, which one had a right to expect in
the house of a magician, had vanished, and that if it were not for the
gossip of the townsfolk, she would return to her father's house.

With this statement Rosalie stopped and looked around her, frightened by
her own frankness, which she now recognized as unwise and fatal to the
last degree.

The unlooked-for and dignified reserve of her injured husband, together
with his ghastly paleness disturbed her, and her inquietude grew to
painful anxiety as he maintained silence. At length he said "I have
learned to love you truly and passionately, my wife, and now you show
me how you have returned the affection which my heart bestowed upon you.
You are right when you accuse me of having laid too much stress upon
vain trifles. For that very fault I have been most severely punished,
for had I wooed you in woollen, instead of in velvet, I should never
have had the misfortune to be bound to a woman like you. Nor was it love
that led me to you, but the miserable ambition to bring a nobleman's
daughter into my burgher home. So we both deceived each other, and
now if you wish to return whence I took you--you may leave my home
unhindered."

The young wife buried her face in her hands and answered: "No, no, life
is too miserable and poverty-stricken at home and I have suffered too
much in