nd sat down
on the low stool to peep through the wicket by the door out at the yard;
the singing had stopped and the silence frightened me almost as much.
Papias had stopped his piping too, and was sitting in the corner where
Orpheus sat to write his letter to Tauromenium."

"I know," said Orpheus, "the inkstand was there, that the steward of the
inn had lent us the day before."

"Just so; and when mother came in, there he was, dipping his finger in
the ink, and painting his white dress--you can study the pattern at
your leisure.--But no not interrupt me.--Well, I was looking into the
court-yard; it was quite empty; all the monks were gone. Suddenly a tall
young man in a white dress with a beautiful sky-blue border appeared
through the great gate. The gate-keeper crawled after him very humbly as
far as his rope would allow and even the steward spoke to him with both
hands pressed to his breast as if he had a faithful heart on the right
side as well as the one on the left. This young man--it was our kind
friend Marcus, of course--crossed the court, taking a zigzag at first,
as a snipe flies, and then came towards our door. The steward and the
gate-keeper had both vanished.--Do you remember the young Goths whom
their father took to bathe in the Tiber last winter, when it was so
cold? And how they first stood on the brink and dipped their toes in,
and then ran away and when they came back again just wetted their heads
and chests? But they had to jump in at last when their father shouted
some barbaric words to them--I can see them now. Well, Marcus was
exactly like those boys; but at last he suddenly walked straight up to
our door and knocked."

"He remembered your pretty face no doubt," laughed Karnis.

"May be. However, I did not stir. I kept as still as a mouse, sitting on
my stool and watching him through the key-hole, till presently he called
out: 'Is no one there?' Then I forgot and answered: 'They are all
out!' Of course I had betrayed myself--but it is impossible to think of
everything at once. Oh! yes--you may laugh. And he smiled too--he is a
very handsome fellow--and desired me most pressingly to open the door
as he had something of the greatest importance to say to me. I said he
could talk very well through the gap at the top; that Pyramus and Thisbe
had even kissed through a chink in a wall. But he would not see the
joke; he got graver and more earnest, and insisted, saying that our
fate, his and mine, hung