she was now listening to Reinhold's and Frederick's songs, and
now watching Conrad cleverly gaining the victory over his competitors,
and now she saw him coming to her for the prize of victory; and then
she hummed a few lines of a pretty song, and then she whispered, "Do
you want my flowers?" whereat a deeper crimson suffused her cheeks, and
brighter glances made their way through her downcast eyelashes, and
soft sighs stole forth from her inmost heart. Then Dame Martha came in,
and Rose was delighted to be able to tell at full length all that had
taken place in St. Catherine's Church and on the Allerwiese. When Rose
had done speaking, Dame Martha said, smiling, "Oh! so now, dear Rose,
you will soon have to make your choice between your three handsome
lovers." "For God's sake," burst out Rose, quite frightened, and
flushing hotly all over her face, "for mercy's sake, Dame Martha, what
do you mean by that? I--three lovers!" "Don't take on so," went on Dame
Martha, "don't take on in that way, dear Rose, as if you knew nothing,
as if you could guess nothing. Why, where do you put your eyes, girl?
you must be quite blind not to see that our journeymen. Reinhold,
Frederick, and Conrad--yes, all three of them--are madly in love with
you." "What a fancy, to be sure, Dame Martha," whispered Rose, holding
her hands before her face. Then Dame Martha knelt down before her, and
threw her arm about her, saying, "Come, my pretty, bashful child, take
your hands away, and look me straight in the eyes, and then tell me you
have not long ago perceived that you fill both the heart and the mind
of each of our journeymen, deny that if you can. Nay, I tell you, you
can't do it; and it would, i' faith, be a truly wonderful thing if a
maiden's eyes did not see a thing of that sort. Why, when you go into
the shop, their eyes are off their work and flying across to you in a
minute, and they bustle and stir about with new life. And Reinhold and
Frederick begin their best songs, and even wild Conrad grows quiet and
gentle; each tries to invent some excuse to approach nearer to you, and
when you honour one of them with a sweet look or a kindly word, how his
eyes sparkle, and his face flushes! Come now, my pet, is it not nice to
have such handsome fellows all making love to you? But whether you will
choose one of the three or which it will be, that I cannot indeed say,
for you are good and kind to them all alike, and yet--and yet--but I
must not say m