第32章
《安徒生童话英文版 全TXT版》章节:第32章,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
It must be done, for very shame; you are sure tobe asked when you come back if you have seen everything, and will mostlikely be told that you've omitted to see what was best worth seeingof all. I got tired at last of those endless Madonnas; I began tothink I was turning into a Madonna myself."
"And then the living, mamma," said Kaela.
"Yes, indeed," she replied, "no such a thing as a respectable meatsoup- their cookery is miserable stuff."
The journey had also tired Kaela; but she was always fatigued,that was the worst of it. So they sent for Sophy, and she was takeninto the house to reside with them, and her presence there was a greatadvantage. Mamma-in-law acknowledged that Sophy was not only aclever housewife, but well-informed and accomplished, though thatcould hardly be expected in a person of her limited means. She wasalso a generous-hearted, faithful girl; she showed that thoroughlywhile Kaela lay sick, fading away. When the casket is everything,the casket should be strong, or else all is over. And all was overwith the casket, for Kaela died.
"She was beautiful," said her mother; "she was quite differentfrom the beauties they call 'antiques,' for they are so damaged. Abeauty ought to be perfect, and Kaela was a perfect beauty."
Alfred wept, and mamma wept, and they both wore mourning. Theblack dress suited mamma very well, and she wore mourning the longest.She had also to experience another grief in seeing Alfred marry again,marry Sophy, who was nothing at all to look at. "He's gone to the veryextreme," said mamma-in-law; "he has gone from the most beautiful tothe ugliest, and he has forgotten his first wife. Men have noconstancy. My husband was a very different man,- but then he diedbefore me."
"'Pygmalion loved his Galatea,' was in the song they sung at myfirst wedding," said Alfred; "I once fell in love with a beautifulstatue, which awoke to life in my arms; but the kindred soul, which isa gift from heaven, the angel who can feel and sympathize with andelevate us, I have not found and won till now. You came, Sophy, not inthe glory of outward beauty, though you are even fairer than isnecessary. The chief thing still remains. You came to teach thesculptor that his work is but dust and clay only, an outward form madeof a material that decays, and that what we should seek to obtain isthe ethereal essence of mind and spirit. Poor Kaela! our life wasbut as a meeting by the way-side; in yonder world, where we shall knoweach other from a union of mind, we shall be but mere acquaintances."
"That was not a loving speech," said Sophy, "nor spoken like aChristian. In a future state, where there is neither marrying norgiving in marriage, but where, as you say, souls are attracted to eachother by sympathy; there everything beautiful develops itself, andis raised to a higher state of existence: her soul will acquire suchcompleteness that it may harmonize with yours, even more than mine,and you will then once more utter your first rapturous exclamationof your love, 'Beautiful, most beautiful!'"
THE END.
1872
FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
BY THE ALMSHOUSE WINDOW
by Hans Christian Andersen
NEAR the grass-covered rampart which encircles Copenhagen lies agreat red house. Balsams and other flowers greet us from the long rowsof windows in the house, whose interior is sufficientlypoverty-stricken; and poor and old are the people who inhabit it.The building is the Warton Almshouse.
Look! at the window there leans an old maid. She plucks thewithered leaf from the balsam, and looks at the grass-covered rampart,on which many children are playing. What is the old maid thinkingof?