Ah," impulsively, "had I my way she would be
housed in the palace, not in the lonely Krumerweg. But my father does
not know that she is in Dreiberg; and we dare not tell him, for he still
believes that she had something to do with my abduction." Then she
stopped. She was strangely making this peasant her confidante. What a
whim!
"Highness, that could not be."
"No, Gretchen; she had nothing to do with it." Her highness leveled her
gaze at the flowers, but her eyes saw only the garret or the barnlike
loneliness of the opera during rehearsals.
Gretchen did not move. She saw that her highness was dreaming; and
she herself had dreams.
"Do you like music?"
"Highness, I am always singing."
"La-la--la!" sang the princess capriciously.
"La-la--la!" sang Gretchen smiling. Her voice was not purer or sweeter;
it was merely stronger, having been accustomed to the open air.
"Brava!" cried the princess, dropping book and whip and folding the note
inside the book. "Who taught you to sing?"
"Nobody, highness."
"What do you do?"
"I am a goose-girl; in the fall and winter I work at odd times in the
Black Eagle."
"The Black Eagle? A tavern?"
"Yes, Highness."
"Tell me all about yourself."
This was easy for Gretchen; there was so little.
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