' 'Yes, they are to be married,' I said. 'But
this was at two o'clock in the morning!' 'Well, what of it?' said I,
and, after a little: 'The night is their own.' Then he shifted his gold
spectacles a little up his nose, and observed: 'But don't you think, at
that hour of night, it doesn't look well?' Still I didn't look up, and
we sat like that for ten minutes. 'Shall I bring you a shawl to put over
your shoulders?' he asked. 'No, thank you,' I answered. 'If only I dared
take your little hand,' he said. I did not answer--I was thinking of
something else. He laid a little box in my lap. I opened the box, and
found a brooch in it. There was a coronet on the brooch, and I counted
ten stones in it... Glahn, I have that brooch with me now; will you
look at it? It is trampled to bits--come, come and see how it is
trampled to bits... 'Well, and what am I to do with this brooch?' I
asked. 'Wear it,' he answered. But I gave him back the brooch, and said,
'Let me alone--it is another I care for.' 'What other?' he asked. 'A
hunter in the woods,' I said. 'He gave me two lovely feathers once, for
a keepsake. Take back your brooch.' But he would not. Then I looked at
him for the first time; his eyes were piercing. 'I will not take back
the brooch. You may do with it as you please; tread on it,' he said.
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