y dressing-gown, which was
much too long for me, and I fell flat on the ground. When I had picked
myself up the maid was gone, and I heard her in the distance laughing
fit to kill herself.

Now I had delightful food for my reflections. After all, she still
remembered me and my flowers! I went into my garden and hastily tore
up all the weeds from the beds, throwing them high above my head into
the sunlit air, as if with the roots I were eradicating all melancholy
and annoyance from my life. Once more the roses were like _her_ lips,
the sky-blue convolvulus was like _her_ eyes, the snowy lily with its
pensive, drooping head was _her_ very image. I put them all tenderly
in a little basket; the evening was calm and lovely, not a speck of
a cloud in the sky. Here and there a star appeared; the murmur of
the Danube was heard afar over the meadows; in the tall trees of the
castle garden countless birds were twittering to one another merrily.
Ah, I was so happy!

When at last night came I took my basket on my arm and set out for the
large garden. The flowers in the little basket looked so gay, white,
red, blue, and smelled so sweet, that my very heart laughed when I
peeped in at them.

Filled with joyous thoughts, I walked in the lovely moonlight over the
trim paths strewn with gravel, across the little white bridge, beneath
which the swans were sleeping on the bosom of the water, and past the
pretty arbors and summer-houses. I soon found the big pear-tree; it
was the same under which, while I was gardener's boy, I used to lie on
sultry afternoons.

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