Part 12 (2/2)

”Shall we see whether neighbour Sachs be at hoo in?” But he decides against it

”Why should I, after all? Better not! When a man undertakes a course out of the usual, how should he accept advice? Was it not he who considered that I went too far? Yet, in forsaking the beaten track, was I not doing even as he does? Or, was I actuated peradventure--by vanity?” Pogner is not easy in his hter to sit beside him a little space on the stone seat under the linden in front of their house; he tries to fortify his faltering heart with the review of his plan for the ht in which he first saw and found it alluring ”Deliciously es a most beautiful day to shi+ne upon you to-morrow Oh, child, does no throb of the heart tell you what happiness awaits you to-hers and plebeians, its guilds, its populace and high officials, is to gather in your presence to see you award the prize, the noble laurel-wreath, to the room?” But he speaks to the Evchen of day before yesterday So recently as that his schehter of his blood even as it did him; she saith kindred eyes Her youthful pride rejoiced in the part she was to play of lovely lady of romance, to know that she should beco years recurring in the songs of song-loving Nure As for the practical side of the question, she felt safe She believed she knehich of the ers was sure of election by the majority of the ht good-will--so recently as day before yesterday But to-day, at her father's ”the master of your choice” she wistfully inquires, ”Dear father, _must_ it be a master?”--”Understand me well, _a master of your choice_,” the uneasy parent replies

Magdalene is irl becoests to her father that he go in to supper Vexed with hi any guest, are we?”

he asks, a shade querulously ”Why, surely, the Knight?”--”How is that?”--”Did you not see him to-day?”--”No desire have I to see him!” the troubled father ether and make four to his startled rown!”--”Dear little father, go in and change your coat!” urges the pretty daughter ”Humph!” hein dalene reports to Eva David's news: the Knight has been refused aduild ”God help me! What shall I do!” cries Eva, in a sea of troubles; ”Ah, Lene, the anxiety! Where to turn to find out so?”--”From Sachs, perhaps?”--”Ah, yes, he is fond ofsuspicion Your father will notice if we stay out any longer at present Wait until after supper I shall have soe which a certain person charged ht?”--”No, Beckirl scoffs as they enter the house

Sachs, in working-clothes, is seenwithin his shop He orders David to place his table and stool beside the door, and go to bed

Reluctantly David goes off He is troubled over Magdalene's unaccountable behaviour to hi up late of hisover to her for an explanation

Sachs takes his seat before the work-table, sets histo work, leans back and lets the sweetness of the evening beguile him, drea strain fro it with pensive pleasure, again sings itself to his inward ear; it, indeed, is partly to blaentle unrest The memory will not let him alone of that marvellous, that unprecedented experience of the afternoon Unreservedly the grey-hairedwho so easily outstrips the, their multitudinous canons Not only without a shade of bitterness but with a tender elation, he lives over again the e To his true poet's heart it is abeautiful should have been, and he there to witness and rejoice He reconsiders it all with affectionate disquisition, fresh delight in every point

If just a shade of sadness belongs to the hour, it lies in the recognition that though the vision of beauty has by the contagion that is proper to it sti, he too, beautiful things, not by any longing could he, after a life of faithful effort in the service of Poesy, produce anything to compare with the unprepared effusion of that youth!

In the serenity of the lovely evening his thoughts breathe therance--how mild, hoeet, how abundant,--exhaled from the elder-tree! Its soft spell loosens hts

To what purpose, any expression of mine? A poor, simple fellow am I! Little in the mood for work as I am, you had best, friend, let me alone! Far wiser I should attend to ether from poetry!” Resolutely he falls to work But Friend Elder-tree does not therefore cease to shed scent It casts its spell over hi to work!” Sachs leans back and listens again to the echo in hisear to the persistent voice in his brain, ”and cannot understand it

I cannot retain it--nor yet can forget it! And if for a rasp it, to rasp that which struck me as illimitable? No rule fitted it, and yet it had not one fault! It sounded so old, and was yet so new,--like the song of birds in the sweet May-time One who should hear it, and, s in imitation of that Bird, would ,--exquisite co laid in his breast And he sang even as he must! And as he must, the power to do it came to hi to-day, his beak is fashi+oned aright! Great as was the dis the masters, he was much to Hans Sachs's mind!”

Evchen has come out of her house and softly approached Sachs looks up, joyfully surprised, at her greeting: ”Good-evening, ent?” There follows as pretty an exhibition of youthful fe inflections of the music alone would inform one of what is in action Eva has come to Sachs with an ulterior -trial She has no mind, of course, to avow her interest frankly

She , to flatter her e his fondness for her can never fall wholly wide of the mark Sachs loves her dearly, that she knows, and she has, in the innocent presu beauty, not questioned that he would enter the song-tournament for her; and until yesterday she rested in placid content this affection which never since her birth has failed her Her narrow eighteen years have no conception of a devotion so generous and deep it would not drea upon her youth the burden of his htfulness

Sachs is unwilling, too, very likely, in his wisdo the guardianshi+p of an over-fair young wife His neighbour's picturesque whiiven Sachs sufficient uneasiness, but he finally, as we heard hiner, rests satisfied with the uild ofEve As for the father's ”Never!” applied to her ers' choice, Sachs knows his Pogner and his Eva, and is willing to entrust the enuous seductress finds the genial, clever, hbour's attitude toward her in this scene more canny than she can have expected, or quite relishes It al for her Perhaps an intuition of her momentary insincerity hasupon himself of her pretty coquetries he suffers however without unreasonable distaste ”Ha, child, dear Evchen, out so late? But I know--I knohat brings you so late The new shoes?”--”You are mistaken! I have not even tried on the shoes They are so beautiful, so richly ornamented, I have not yet ventured so much as to put them on my feet!”--”And yet you are to wear them to-morrow as a bride?”

She takes a seat on the stone bench by his door and leans confidingly close to hiroom?”--”How should I know?”--”How can you know then that I am to be a bride?”--”What a question! The town knows it!”--”And if the town knows it, friend Sachs feels that he has good authority I should have thought that he knew more than the town”--”What should I know?”--”See, now, I shall be obliged to tell him! I am certainly a fool!”--”I did not say so”--”It is you then who are ”--”I do not know”--”You do not know! You have nothing to say!”

She draay, nettled: ”Ah, friend Sachs, I now perceive that pitch is not wax! I had supposed you cleverer” Caluides the conversation froround

”Child, the properties both of wax and pitch I am well acquainted with With wax I stroke the silken threads hich I stitch your dainty shoes; the shoes I a, I seith coarse cord, and use pitch to stiffen it, for the hard-fibred custoreat consequence, I suppose?”--”Of consequence, indeed! A proudforth victorious fro these shoes”--”Then use pitch in plenty, that he may stick fast in the to win you”--”What can justify such a hope?”--”He is a bachelor, you see; there are not ain she draws near and bends close to hiht not a er be successful?” In his kind, sane, unsentimental voice he replies promptly: ”My child, he would be too old for you!”--”What do you mean, too old? The question here is one of art The man who has achieved distinction in art, let hiently, paternally

”Dear little Eva, are youa fool ofme with blue haze?)--”Not I! It is you--”

she retorts war tricks on me Confess that you are of an inconstant nature God knoho it is you have now housed in your heart And I have been supposing for years it was I!”--”Because I used to be fond of carrying you in my arms?”--”I see! It was only because you had no children of your own!”--”Tih,” Sachs rerew up!”--”And you grew up, tall and ht you would take me into your house in place of wife and child”--”Thus I should have a child and a wife in oneA pleasant pastime, indeed! Ha ha! How beautifully you have planned it all!”--”I believe,” she pouts, and bends her brows on hi fun of me! In the end he will calht under his nose, from him and all the rest!”--”How could I prevent it,” says Sachs, not upset apparently by the fearful thought, ”if he is successful? Your father alone could find a remedy to that”--”Where such a master carries his head!” cries Eva, in acute exasperation, ”If I were to come to your house, should I so much as be made at home?” Somewhat dryly he takes up her words, as before, to steer the conversation from these dubious borders; and by some hazard, or intuition, turns it upon the subject nearest her heart ”Ah, yes, you are right! My head is in a state of confusion I have had s very probably to -school, do you -trial to-day”--”Yes, child, I had considerable trouble over an election” She draws close to him ”Now, Sachs!

You should have said so at once, and I would not have harassed you with senseless questions Tell ht, ht?

You do not say so! And was he admitted?”--”Far from it, my dear

There was too much difference of opinion”--”Well, tell me, then

Tell me how it all happened If it troubles you, how should it leave me untroubled? So he stood the trial discreditably and was defeated”--”Hopelessly defeated, the gallant cavalier!” Walther's failure is syroan ”Hopelessly, you say?

There was no way then by which heso badly, so faultily, that there is no possibilitya master?”--”My child,” Sachs broadly assevers, ”for him all is definitely lost And never in any land will he bee of tears, with difficulty controlling her indignation, Eva continues her questioning: ”One thing le friend?” Sachs nearly laughs ”That were not bad! To be, on top of everything, his friend! His friend--before whorossed with her single idea, the gleam in Sachs's eye, the fire in his tone, would interpret to her this brutal-sounding speech) ”Young Lord Arrogance, let hih the world!

As for us, let us draw our breath in peaceful enjoyment of e have acquired with labour and difficulty Keep off the fiery fellow fro us! Let fortune bloo all conceals to her feet: ”Yes, elsewhere shall fortune bloohbourhood of you repulsive envy-ridden creatures!--elsewhere, where hearts still have some warmth in them, in spite of all cantankerous Master Hanses!--Directly, yes, I a to her froo home much comforted! It reeks of pitch here till God take pity on us! Kindle a fire with it, do, Master Sachs, and get a little warht so!” Sachs says to himself as he watches her cross the street to her own door Two and two have leaped together in his e course to pursue” He goes within and closes his door all but a crack

”Your father is asking for you,” Magdalene reports to her agitated one to my room and to bed” But Becke fro and play to her a beautiful composition by which he hopes on the morroin her He wishes to discover whether it be to her taste

Eva, anxiously awaiting the arrival of her lover, disposes of the subject by ordering Magdalene to be at thein her place

”That would dalene; ”His chamber is toward the lane” The prospect tickles her spirits Even as she is urging Eva to go in, for her father, is calling, Walther conises, to atte indoors the daner with some discreet misrepresentation

With passionate endearments Walther and Eva have rushed into each other's ar the title offurther to hope froether ”Ahere liberty is!” he cries, ”That is where I belong, there where I aer at remembrance of theat the thought of his beloved sitting to-morrow in their midst, looked upon by them with covetous eyes as a possible bride ”And I would endure it, do you think? I would not fall upon theht-watchman's horn breaks across his heated outburst He claps hand to his sword Eva draws hiently into the shadow of the linden-tree, to lie concealed until the watcho within

The night-watchman, with pike, horn, and lantern, co the hour of ten; he bids the householders look to their fires and lights, avoiding disaster, and so let God the Lord be praised! He turns the corner, the sound of his horn dies away

Sachs fros are under way! No less than an elopement! Attention! This must not be!”

Eva creeps forth frodalene's things ”No stopping for reflection!” she cries; ”Away from here! Away! Oh, that ere already off and afar!”--”This way, through the lane” Walther draws her along with hiate we shall find servant and horses” But right across the lane falls suddenly a great shaft of light, projected frolobe which nifies it to intense brilliancy The lovers find theht illumination Eva pulls Walther quickly back into the dark ”Woe's o near that man!”--”What other road can we take?”--”The street there--but it is a winding one, I am not well acquainted with it, and, besides, we should run into the night-watchh the lane!”--”The shoe-maker must first leave the !”--”I will force him to leave it!” says Walther, fiercely--”He must not see you He knows you”--”The shoe-maker?”--”Yes, it is Sachs”--”Hans Sachs,but evil to say of you!”--”What, Sachs? He, too? I will put out his laain at his arm, and even at that moment both are startled into i as he coht has disappeared from the shoe-maker's