"Where," asked he, observing that her snowy shoulders were bare, "where did you get a kerchief to bathe my head?"
Marianne started and laid her hands upon her neck. "Good Heaven!" murmured she to herself; "it was the kerchief from my own bosom!" Unconsciously she reached her hand to take it from the pail.
"What!" said Joseph, stopping her; "would you wear that dripping kerchief? No, no! let the sky, the birds, and the wood-nymphs look at those graceful shoulders; and if I may not look, I will shut my eyes."
"Oh! do not shut your eyes; they are blue as the sky itself!" replied Marianne. But as she spoke she drew forward the long braids that trailed behind her on the ground, and quickly untwisting them, her hair fell in showers around her neck and shoulders, so that they were effectually concealed.
"You are right," said the emperor. "Your hair is as beautiful as the rest of your person. It surpasses the sables of a Russian princess. You know perfectly well how to adorn yourself, you bewitching child."
"I did not mean to adorn myself, sir," said Marianne. "Why, then, did you cover yourself with that superb mantle?"
"Because, sir, I—I was cold."
"Are you so icy, then, that you freeze in midsummer?"
She said nothing, but bent her head in confusion. Luckily, at that moment, Kathi came in sight with the horse.
"Now, sir," exclaimed Marianne, "you can rise, can you not?"