"No, not that, either.
"Only why did I, weak one, believe thy vows--
"No, I don't know any more. Well, I never! And I've sung it so often when I was at home. At home in the village when me and my sweetheart went for a walk together. Dear, dear"--she stamped her foot angrily--"that I could forget like that."
"Don't be vexed, Cillchen. You mustn't be vexed. Begin again from the beginning, that doesn't matter. I would love to hear it again, again and again. It's splendid."
"Cillchen--Cillchen"--how playful that sounded, positively affectionate. And how he hung on her lips.
Käte craned her neck forward; she was in the veranda now, but the two had not noticed her yet.
The girl sang in a drawling, sing-song voice as she had sung in the village street at home, but the boy's eyes glistened and grew big as he listened to her. His lips moved as though he were singing as well:
"Satin and silk new-wed Henry cover;
Wealthy his bride, brought from land o' Rhine
But serpent stings tease the perjured lover,
Bid slumbers sweet his rich bed decline.
"The clock strikes twelve: sudden are appearing
Through curtain fringe, fingers, slender, white.
Whom sees he now? His once dear----"
The singer came to a standstill--suddenly the sound of a deep-drawn breath passed through the veranda. The boy gave a terrified shriek--there she stood, there she stood!