While they were weighing
it out, I watched her.
A grey dress, much too small for her, with the buttonholes worn; her
flat breast heaved restlessly. How she had grown that summer! Her brow
was knit in thought; those strangely curved eyebrows stood in her face
like two riddles; all her movements were grown more mature. I looked at
her hands; the contour of her long, delicate fingers moved me violently,
made me tremble. She was still turning over the stuffs.
I stood wishing that Asop would run to her behind the counter--then I
could call him back at once and apologise. What would she say then?
"Here you are," said the storekeeper.
I paid for the things, took up my parcels, and took my leave of her. She
looked up, but again without speaking. Good, I thought to myself. She
is the Baron's bride already, as like as not. And I went, without my
bread.
When I got outside, I looked up at the window. No one was watching me.
XXXIII
Then one night the snow came, and it began to be cold in my hut. There
was a fireplace where I cooked my food, but the wood burned poorly and
it was very draughty, though I had caulked the walls as well as I could.
The autumn was past, and the days were growing shorter. The first snow
was still melting under the rays of the sun.
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