"I shall be near when it comes. Good fairies are always close at hand." He swept his hat from his head; ease and grace were in the movement; no irony, nothing but respect. "And do you love this vintner?"
"With all my heart."
"And he loves you?"
"Yes. His lips might lie, but not his eyes and the touch of his hand."
"So much the worse!" said the mountaineer inaudibly.
Gretchen had gone home with her clock; but still Herr Ludwig, as the mountaineer called himself, tarried in the dim and dusty shop. Clocks, old and new, broken and whole, clocks from the four ends of the world; and watches, thick and clumsy, thin and graceful, of gold and silver and pewter.
"Is there anything you want?" asked the clock-mender.
Herr Ludwig turned. How old this clock-mender was, how very old!
"Yes," he said. "I've a watch I should like you to look over." And he carelessly laid the beautiful time-piece on the worn wooden counter.
The clock-mender literally pounced upon it. "Where did you get a watch like this?" he demanded suspiciously.