Page:Maria Felicia.pdf/49

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A STORY OF BOHEMIAN LOVE
45

become ill during the entertainment. Impatiently I waited for her in the dressing-hall, where the servants were assisting the guests about to start for home. The most sprightly among them was a maid whose dark-pitted face was so peculiarly shaded by a stiff white bonnet that her comical appearance continually tickled the young men into a spirit of waggery. They wondered that wine which she touched did not sour; they were certain that no ghosts were to be found in the palace, because she must have frightened them away. Continuing her work, she quietly listened to all their remarks; but who could describe the amazement of the gigglers when the supposed servant suddenly jerked off her bonnet, wiped her face, and Countess Felsenburk smiled at them? ‘There, gentlemen,’ she exclaimed, with her most willful laugh, ‘that is the way it goes with your hearts! It is just half an hour since I heard you say that if you were passing the house that entertained me you would know my presence by the pulsations of your hearts and the dizziness of your heads. How did it