Arms and the Woman

age of the old inn. It was a relic of the days when feudal lords still warred with one another, and the united kingdom was undreamt of. It looked to be 300 years old, and migh

ng heavy on the moist air. And within a stone's throw of the rear the Danube noiselessly slid along its green banks. All I knew about the inn was that it had been by a whim of nature the birthplace of that be

cess. She was very wealthy, and owned as many as three strongholds in the petty principality of Ho

int. I received a room which commanded a fine view of the river and a stretch of the broad highway. I was the only guest. This very loneliness pleased me. My travel-stained suit I exchanged for

maid. If she is pretty

ings I had seen few barmai

ty and had sent a stream of melting silver trailing over all the land. There is nothing more beautiful to see than placid water as it reflects a summer's twilight. The blue Danube! Who has heard that magic name without the remembrance of a face close to your own, an arm, bare, white, dazzling, resting and gleaming like marble on your broadcloth sleeve, and above all, the dreamy, swinging strains of Strauss? There was a face once which had rested near

turned my head and saw a woman. On seeing the bright end of my cigar, sh

trembled

founded, my heart nigh suffocating me in its desire t

hed arms, she turned and fled into the shadows, leaving with me nothing but the echo of her laughter, the sof

I laughed d

wood-nymph had visited me, and for a brief space had borrowed the features of the woman I loved. In v

oom, smoking bad tobacco and drinking a fina

rmaid?" I asked

d me sharply. I read a que

a breath of fresh air," he said

r of the bar opened and in came the barmaid herself. No, it was not Phyllis, but the resemblance was so startling that I caught my breath and stared at her with a persistency which bordered on ruden

d I, with apparent composure.

with a courtesy. I had a vague idea

e before," said I, "and you rem

een to the

t city in the worl

you remind me of no

m the rose she wore an

ler than the one b

on, "lives in America, where your com

I like Americans," archl

hy. All foreigners have a great lov

liberal? Is it with mon

he one when they

ht barmaid,

: "Is this

born here and I have tended

en of the steins, but I

n of th

store of compliments on

and I complimented an innkeeper, and when my bill was p

to me as having been aroused not at what I had said, but at s

ein here from which the King has dr

ed, but the smile

ver been within five

e worse for

why t

s missed see

en Gretch

rd compliments li

of them. I'll drink half

of the old blue

, but I'll drink to those in your cheeks,

rr intend to stay

is the evi

be happy with

ommon to all; to sit around a

sh only to wait upon my own desire

aid I. "Some must serve

ands. I had forgotten for the moment the Princess, or that I was hunting for Hillars. It is strange how a

d to be pleading, nay, entreating, while she merely shook her head and laughed. Finally the old man lifted his hands to heaven

said I; "give

e them all a

l not want

nce, then cut a rose for me wh

s unkind,"

r later. Nothing lasts, not even the world itself. You wish a rose, not

iles falsely, the rose, nor plays with the hearts of men. I love a rose becaus

laughed Gretchen. "The withered

t le

to man withers in the excha

poiling a very pretty picture. W

know about ros

on which you should have learned among these roses. Nature teaches us

ng forth a gr

I, "I'll ke

had whimsically left unfinished. Then she had turned from Venus to Diana, and Gretchen became evolved: a Diana, slim and willowy. A sculptor would have said that Phyllis might have been a goddess, and Gretchen a wood nymph, had not Nature suddenly changed her plans. What I admired in Phyllis was her imperfect beauties. What I admired in Gretchen was her beautiful perfections. And they were so alike and yet so different. Have you ever seen

I, "you are ver

ifficult to tell H

h mea

what it would take a German or a Frenc

ing more interest

only ones who have told you that y

"I am a poor barmaid, and

nd mythology?" I

gnorant as fiction and ill-meaning novelist

f thinking so," said I,

ever to thin

o his breakfast and let

bowed to her as they bowed in the days of

ed to bombard the innkeeper. I w

your daught

ather," he said. "Does

very well educat

Herr wish R

. Has Gretchen se

uld like a knoblauch

en was not to be discussed. S

hat once upon a time a pri

oth eyebrows and shoulder

every inn; it ha

man I might have said

no truth in it?

e statement; if Herr will pardon me, it i

?" I cried, with lively inte

er shook his he

laughed; "I sha

le said: "Much goo

over the fireplace. Her hands were bare; they w

want you to tell me t

leg

e Princess who

laugh. The laugh said: "Y

e a Princess born here? Perhaps. At any rate it is not a legend; history nor peasantry make men

the faculty of making persons forget what they were seeking, and

me lags. Make a servant

aid too much honor,

bit of doing any

those millionaires

I laughed, but Gretchen

, and you shall weed

at me, but I was

cried. "An onion would smell a

ruined the row back of you!" or "Pull the weeds more gently!" and sometimes, "Ach! could your friends see you now!" I suppose that I did not make a pretty picture. The perspiration would run down my face. I would fo

a living, he works so

nswered, leaning on my h

en to go to war with each other? Who rouse the ignorant to deeds of violence? One of those

opping the hoe; "what

ook with fear upon one of those men who can do

ked at it in th

etly, "that you are about as much a ba

m Gretchen's cheeks, her eyes gr

; I shall respect it, and continue to think of her only as a barmaid with-with

he inn was made in silence. Once there, however, she recovered. "I am sorry to have put

our troubles!" I cried gayl

Gretchen, w

no tric

nectar b

ouquet will

t voice wil

t the m

your toll-a

e of th

gold means

glass get

n, haste th

it in th

on her lips, but it was

d innkeeper, as I went into the barroo

een weeding your knoblauch pat

ked at Gretch

re," said Gretchen, in an

uestion in his, a command in hers. I pretended to be ex

has an innkeeper waited on

a mystery