I am free, if only for a little while!"
Outside the door the chancellor paused. She was singing. It was the same
aria he had heard that memorable night when he found her in the dim
garret.
CHAPTER IX
GRETCHEN'S DAY
Gretchen was always up when the morning was rosy, when the trees were
still dark and motionless, and the beads of dew white and frostlike. For
what is better than to meet the day as it comes over the mountains, and
silence breaks here and there, in the houses and streets, in the fields
and the vineyards? Let old age, which has played its part and taken to
the wings of the stage, let old age loiter in the morning, but not green
years. Gretchen awoke as the birds awoke, with snatches and little
trills of song. To her nearest neighbors there was about her that which
reminded them of the regularity of a good clock; when they heard her
voice they knew it was time to get up.
She was always busy in the morning. The tinkle of the bell outside
brought her to the door, and her two goats came pattering in to be
relieved of their creamy burden. Gretchen was fond of them; they needed
no care at all. The moment she had milked them they went tinkling off to
the steep pastures.
Even in midsummer the dawn was chill in Dreiberg.
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