Ah! who would walk in the open at night?
The nightingale continued:
"Go out bare-footed and tear down the branch."
No, no. How ridiculous it would be! If somebody should see her, and tell others, they would laugh at her for her pains.
The nightingale began its song anew.
Malicious bird, that will not allow sleep!
Yet how easy it would be to try: a little branch in a flower-pot. Who could know what it was? A girl's innocent jest, with which she does harm to no one. Love's childish enchantment.
It would be easy to attempt it.
And if it were true? If there were something in it? How often people say, "this or that woman has given her husband something to make him love her so truly, and not even see her faults?" If it were true?
How often people wondered, how two people could love each other? With what did they enchant each other? If it were true?