The woman looked at me with a puzzled frown, but did not answer. Then, as I started toward her with outstretched arms, she turned and fled into the shadows, leaving with me nothing but the echo of her laughter, the softest, sweetest laughter! I made no effort to follow her, because I was not quite sure that I had seen anything.
"Moonlight!" I laughed discordantly.
Phyllis in this deserted place? I saw how impossible that was. I had been dreaming. The spirit of some wood-nymph had visited me, and for a brief s.p.a.ce had borrowed the features of the woman I loved. In vain I searched the grove. The vision was nowhere to be found. I went back to the inn somewhat shaken up.
Several old veterans were seated in the barroom, smoking bad tobacco and drinking a final bout. Their jargon was unintelligible to me.
"Where"s your barmaid?" I asked of the inn-keeper.
His faded blue eyes scanned me sharply. I read a question in them and wondered.
"She went into the garden to get a breath of fresh air," he said. "She does not like the smoke."
It annoyed me. I had seen some one, then. What would Phyllis, proud Phyllis, say, I mused, when she heard that a barmaid was her prototype?
This thought had scarcely left me when the door in the rear 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 rudeness. The barmaid was blonde, whereas Phyllis was neither blonde nor brunette, but stood between the extremes, and there was a difference in the eyes: I could see that even in the insufficient light.
"Good evening, fraulein," said I, with apparent composure. "And what might your name be?"
"It is Gretchen, if it please you," with a courtesy. I had a vague idea that this courtesy was made mockingly.
"Gretchen? I have heard the name before," said I, "and you remind me of some one I have seen."
"Herr has been to the great city?"
B---- is the greatest city in the world to the provincial.
"Yes," said I; "but you remind me of no one I ever saw there."
She plucked a leaf from the rose she wore and began nibbling at it.
Her mouth was smaller than the one belonging to Phyllis.
"The person to whom I refer," I went on, "lives in America, where your compatriots brew fine beer and wax rich."
"Ah, Herr is an American? I like Americans," archly. "They are so liberal."
I laughed, but I did not tell her why. All foreigners have a great love of Americans--"They are so liberal."
"So you find Americans liberal? Is it with money or with compliments?"
Said Gretchen: "The one when they haven"t the other."
A very bright barmaid, thought I.
Then I said: "Is this your home?"
"Yes," said Gretchen. "I was born here and I have tended the roses for ever so long."
"I have heard of Gretchen of the steins, but I never before heard of a Gretchen of the roses."
"Herr must have a large store of compliments on hand to begin this early."
"It is a part of my capital," said I. "Once in Switzerland I complimented an innkeeper, and when my bill was presented I found that all extras had been crossed off."
Gretchen laughed. It was a low laugh, a laugh which appeared to me as having been aroused not at what I had said, but at something which had recurred to her. I wanted to hear it again.
So I said: "I suppose you have a stein here from which the King has drunk; all taverns and inns have them."
Gretchen only smiled, but the smile was worth something.
"No; the King has never been within five miles of this inn."
"So much the worse for the King."
"And why that?"
"The King has missed seeing Gretchen."
It was then Gretchen laughed.
"I have never heard compliments like Herr"s before."
"Why, I have any amount of them. I"ll drink half a litre to your health."
She filled one of the old blue earthen steins.
"I haven"t seen your roses in the gardens, but I"ll drink to those in your cheeks," said I, and I drew back the pewter lid.
"How long does Herr intend to stay?" asked Gretchen.
"To the day is the evil thereof."
"Ah, one must be happy with nothing to do."
"Then you have the ambition common to all; to sit around and let others wait upon you?"
"No, that is not my ambition. I wish only to wait upon my own desires and not those of the--the others."
"It is all the same," said I. "Some must serve, others must be served."
When I went upstairs to my room it was my belief that a week or so at the inn would not hang heavy on my hands. I had forgotten for the moment the Princess, or that I was hunting for Hillars. It is strange how a face may upset one"s plans. Gretchen"s likeness to Phyllis, whom I loved, upset mine for many days to come.
As I gazed from my window the next morning I beheld the old innkeeper and Gretchen engaged in earnest conversation. He appeared to be pleading, nay, entreating, while she merely shook her head and laughed.
Finally the old man lifted his hands to heaven and disappeared around the wing. When I came down Gretchen was in the gardens culling roses.
She said they were for the table.
"Very well," said I; "give me one now."
"You may have them all at the table."