THE INDIFFERENCE OF THE MILLER OF HOFBAU.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5427, 30 November 1895, Page 2

THE INDIFFERENCE OF THE MILLER OF HOFBAU.

|BT ANTHOHY. HOPS. J

(New Yorl: Sun.)

There is a swift little river running by the village of Hofbau, and on tho river is a mill, kept in the days of King Budolf 111. by a sturdy fellow who lived there all alone. The King knew him, having alighted at his house for a draught of beer as he rode hunting ; and it was of him the King spoke when he said to the Queen :

" There is, I believe, but one man in the country whom Osra could not move, and that is the miller of Hofbau.' ' But though he addressed the Queen, it was his Bister at whom he aimed the speech. The Princess herself was sitting by, and when she heard the King she said :

"I do not desire to move any man. What but troubles come of it. Yet who is this miller?"

Tho King told her where the miller might be found, and he added: "If you convert him to the love of women you shall have the finest bracelet in Strelsau."

"There is nothing, sire, so remote for my thoughts or desire as to convert your miller," said Osra, scornfully.

And in this, at the moment, ehe spoke truthfully : but being left alone for some days at the Castle of Zenda, which is but a few miles from Hofbau, she found time hang very heavy on her hands ; indeed, she did not know what to do with herself for weariness; and so, for this reason and none other at all, one day she ordered her horse and rode off with a single groom into the forest. Coming, as the morning went on, to a wide road she asked the groom whero it led. , " To Hofbau, madarne,"' he answered. "It is not more than a mile further on." Osra waited for a few moments ; then she said : " I will ride on and see tho village, for I have been told that it is pretty. Wait here

till I return," and ahe rodo on, smiling a little and with a delicate tint of colour in her cheeks.

Before long she saw the river and the mill on the river, and coming to the mill she saw the miller sitting before his door smoking a long pipe, and she called out to him, asking him to sell her a glass of milk.

"You can have it for the asking," said the miller. He was a good-looking, fair fellow, and woro a scarlet cap. " There is a pail of it just inside the door behind me." Yet he did not rise, but lay there, lolling luxuriously in the sun. Por he did not know Osra, never having been to Strelsau in his life, and to Zenda three or four times only, and that when tho Princess was not there. Moreover— though this, as must be allowed, is not to the purpose— he had sworn j never again to go so far. Being answered in this manner, and at the some time desiring the milk, the Princess had no choice but to dismount. This she did, and passed by the miller, pausing a moment to look at him with bright, curious eyes that flashed from under the brim of her -wide-rimmed feathered hat; but the miller blinked lazily up at the sun, and took no heed of her. Osra passed on, found the pail, poured out a cup of milk, and drank it. Then, refilling the cup, she carried it to the miller. "Will you not have some?" said she. " I waa too lazy to get it," said the miller and he held out his hand, but did not otherwise change his position. Osra's brow was puckered and her cheek flushed as she knelt down, holding the cup of milk so that the miller could reach it. He took and drained it, gave it back to her, and put his pipe in his mouth ■. again. Osra sat down by him and watched him. He puffed and blinked away, never so muoh as looking at her. "What have you for dinner?" aßked she presently. "A piece of cold pio," said he. "There's enough for two, if you're hungry." , "Would you not like it better hot? " " Oh, ay, but I cannot weary myself with heating it." " I will, heat it," said the Princess ; and, rising, she went into 'the house and made up the fire, which was almost burned out; then she heated the pie, and set the room in order, and laid the table, and drew a large jug of beer from the cask. Next she placed an armchair ready for the miller, and put the jug by it; then she filled apipe from a bowl of tobacco, and set a cushion in the chair. And all this while she hummed a tune, and from time to time smiled, gaily. Lastly she arranged a chair by tbo miller's chair; then she went out and told him that his dinner was ready, and he stumbled to his feet with a sigh of laziness and walked before her into the house.

" May I come ? " cried she. " Ay, there is enough for two," said the miller of Hofbau, without looking round.

So she followed him in. He sank into the armchair and sat there for a moment, surveying the room which was so neat, and the table so daintily laid, and the pie so steaming hot. And he sighed,

saying

"It was like this before poor mother died;" and he fell on to a great portion of pie with which Osra piled his plate.

When he had finished eating— which thing did not happen for some time— she held the jug while he took a long draught; then she brought a coal in the tongs and held it while he lit his pipe from it; then she sat down by him. For several moments he puffed,' and then at last he turned his head and looked at Princess Osra ; and she drooped her long lashes and cast down her eyes, and next she lifted her eyes and glanced for an instant at the miller, and finally she dropped her eyes again and murmured shyly : " What is it, sir? Why do you look at me ?"

"You se,em to bea handy wench," observed the miller. "Tho Die'waV steaming /hot,

and yet not burned : tho beev was well frothed, hut not shaken nor thickened, and tho pipe draws well. Whero doea your father dwell ? "

" He ia dead, sir," said the Princess Osra, vei demurely. " And your mother ? " pursued the miller. " She also is dead."

" There is small harm in that," said the miller, thoughtfully ; and Osra turned away her head to hide her smile.

" Are you not very lonely, living here all by yourself? " sho asked a moment later. " Indeed I have to do everything for myself," said the miller sadly.

" And there is nobody to— to care for you f " j " No— nor to look after my comfort," said the • miller. " Have you any kindred ? " I

"I hare two brothers, sir; but they are married now, and have no need of me."

The miller laid down his pipe, and, sotting his elbow on the table, faced Princess Osra.

"H'm," said he. '"And is it likely you will ride this way again ? "

"I may chanco to do so," said Osra ; and now there was a glance of malicious triumph in her eyes, and sho was thinking already how the bracelet would look on her arm.

"Ah," said the miller; and after a pause ba added, "If you do, come half an hour before dinner, and you can lend a hand in making it ready. Where did you get those fine clothes ?" "My mistress gave them to me," answered Osra, "She has cast them off."

"And that horse you rode ?" "Itis my master's ; I have it to ride when I do my mistress's errands.

" And will your master and mistress do any. thing for you if you leave your servico ?"

'•I have been promised a present if—" said Osra; and she paused in apparent confusion.

"Aye," said the miller, nodding sagaciously, and he rose slowly from the arm ebair. "Will you be this way again in a week or so?" he asked...

** I think it is very likely," answered Princess Osra.

"Then look in," Baid the miller; " about half-an-hour before dinner." And he nodded his head again very significantly at Osra, and turning aWay, went to his work, as a man goes who would far rather sit still in the sun. But juafcas he reaohed the door he turned his head and asked, "Are you sturdy?" "lam strong enough, I think," said she. "A sack of flour is a heavy thing for a man to lift by himself," remarked the miller, and with that he passed through the door and left her alone.

Then she cleared the table, put the pie— or what little was left— in the larder, eet the room in order, refilled the pipe, stood the jug handy by the cask, and, with a look of great satisfaction on her face, tripped out to where her horse was, mounted, and rode away.

The next week— and the interval had seemed long to her, and no less long to tho miller of Hofbau— she came again, and so the week after; and in the week following that she came twice; and on the second of these two days, after dinner, the miller did not go off to his sacks, but he followed her out, pipo in hand, when she went to mount her horse; and, as she was about to mount, he said :

"Indeed you are a handy wench." " You say muoh of my hands, but nothing of my face," remarked Princess Osra.

" Of your face ? " repeated the miller in some surprise. " What should I say of your face ? "

" Well, is it not a comely face ? " asked Osra, turning toward him that he might be better able to answer her question.

The miller regarded her for some moments, then a slow smile spread on his lips.

"Oh, ay, it is well enough," said he. Then he laid a floury finger on her arm, and he continued: "If you come next week — why, it is but half a mile to church! I'll have the cart ready and bid the priest be there. What is your name ? " For ho had not hitherto asked Osra's name. "Rosa Schwartz," said she, and her face was all alight with triumph and amusement "Yes, I shall be very comfortable with you," said the miller. "We will beat the ohurch an hour before noon, so that there may be time afterward for the preparation bf dinner."

"That will bs on Thursday in next week ?" asked Osra.

" Ay, on Thursday," said the miller, and he turned on his heel. But in a minute he turned again, saying : " Give me. a kiss, then, since we are to be man and wife," and he came slowly to. ward her, holding his arms open.

" Nay, the kiss will wait till Thursday. Maybe there will be less flour on your face then." And with a laugh Bhe dived under his outstretched arms and made her escape. And, the day being warm, the miller did not put himsel' out by pursuing her, but stood where he was, with a broad, comfortable smile on his lips; and so he watched her ride away.

' Now, as she rode, the Princess was much occupied in thinking of the miller of Hofbau. Elated and triumphant as Bhe was at having won from him a promise of marriage, she was yet somewhat vexed that he had not shown a more passionate affection ; and thia thought clouded her brow for full half an hour. But then her face cleared. "Still waters run deep," said she to herself. "He is not like these court gallants who have learned to make love as soon as they learn to walk, and cannot talk tea woman without bowing and grimacing and sighing at every word The miller has a deep nature, and surely I have won his heart or he would not take me for his wife. Poor miller! I pray that he may not grieve very bitterly when I make the truth known to him." And then at the thought of the grief of tho miller her face was again clouded; but it again cleared when Bhe considered of the great triumph that she had won, and how she would enjoy a victory over the King, and would have the finest bracelet in all Strelsau as a gift from him. Thus she arrived at the castle in the height of merriment.

It chanced that the King also came to Zenda that night to spend a week hunting tho boar iv the forest, and when Osra, all blushing and laughing, told him of her success with tho miller of Hofbau, he was greatly amused, and swore that no such girl ever lived, and applauded her, renewing his promise of the bracelet; and he declared that he would himself ride with her to Hofbau on the wedding day, and see how the poor miller bore his disappointment. '

" Indeed, I do not see how you are going to excuse yourself to him," he laughed.

"A purse of 600 crowns must do that oifice for me," said she.

" What, will crowns patch a broken heart?" " His broken heart must heal itself, as men's broken hearts do, brother."

"In truth, sister, I have known them cure themselves. Let us hope it may be so with tha miller of Hofbau."

"At the worst, I have revenged the wrongs of women on him. It is unendurable that any man should scorn us, be he king or miller."

"It is indeed very proper that he should suffer great pangs," agreed the King, "in spite of his plaster of crowns. I shall love to see the stolid fellow sighing and moaning like a love-sick courtier." '

So they agreed to ride together to the miller's at Hofbau on the day appointed for the wedding, and both of them waited with impatience for it. But, with the bad luck that pursues mortals (even though they be princes) in this poor world, it happened that early on the morning of the Thursday a great officer came, riding post haste from Strelsau, to take the King's commands on high matters of state; and, although Rudolf was sorely put out of temper by this untoward interruption, yet he had no alternative but to transact tho busineas before he rode to tho miller's at Hofbau. So ho sat fretting and fuming while long papers were read to him, and the Princess walked up and down the length of the drawbridge, fretting also: for before the King could escape from his affairs, the hour was already come, and doubtless the miller of Hofbau was waiting with the priest in the church. And indeed it waa one o'clock or moro before Osra and the King set out from Zenda, and thoy had then a ride of an hour and a half— and all this when 'Osra should havo ; been at the miller's at eleven o'clock.

"Poor man, he will be half mad with waiting and with anxiety for me!" cried Osra. "I must give him another hundred crowns on account'of it.". Andshe added, after apause, "I pray' he may aot take it too much to .heart, 1 *

"Wo must try to prevent him doing himself, any mischief," smiled tho King. " Indeed, it is a serious matter," pouted the j Princess, who thought the King's smiles out of place. j "It was not so when you began it," said her ■ brother, and Osra wa9 silent. Then about half- , past two they came insight of the mill. 3SW, tho King dismounted while they were still severa hundred yards away, and tied his horse to a tree in a clump by the mill. He made a circuit and approached from the side, and, creeping along the house, hid himself behind a large water butt which stood just under the window, and from ; that spot he could hear what passed inside the house, although he could not see. But Osra rode up to the front of the mill, as she had been accustomed to do, and, getting down from her horse, walked up to the door. The miller's cart stood in the yard of the mill, but the horse was not in the shafts, and neither the miller nor anybody else was to be seen about, and the door of the house was shut.

"He must be waiting at the church," said she. "But I will look in and make sure. Indeed, I feel half afraid to meet him." And her heart was beating rapidly and her face was rather pale, as she walked up to the door, for she feared what the miller might do in the passion of his disappointment on learning who sho was and that she could not he his wife. "I hope the 600 crowns will comfort bim," she said, as she laid her hand on the latch of the door, and she sighed— her heart being heavy for tho miller, and maybe a little heavy also for the guilt that lay on her conscience for having deceived him.

Now, when she lifted the latch and opened the door, the sight that met her eyes was thia : The table was strewn with the remains of a brave dinner,* two burned-out pipes lay beside the plates. A smaller table was in front of the fire; on it stood a very large jug entirely empty, hut bearing signs «f having been full not so long ago, and on tiiher side of it, each in an armchair, sat the priest of the village and the miller of Hofbau, and hoth of them were sleeping very contentedly and snoring somewhat as they slept. The Princess, smitten by remorse at this spectacle, said softly:

. "Poor feuow, he grew weary of waiting, and hungry, and was compelled to take his dinner; and, like the man he is, >ho has entertained the priest and kept him here, so that no time should be lost when I arrived. Indeed, lam afraid the poor man loves me very much. Well, miller, or lord, or prince— they are all the same. Heighho ! Why did I deceive him? " And she walked up to tho miller's chair and leaned over the back, and lightly touched his red cap with her fingers, and he put up his hand and brushed with it, as though he brushed away a fly, but gave no other sign bf awakening.

Then the King softly called from behind the water butt under the window :

"Is he there, Osra? Is he there? "

"The poor manha9 fallen asleep in weariness," she answered. " But the priest is here, ready to marry us. Ob, Budolf, I am sorry for what I have done! "

.." Girls are always sorry after it is done," remarked the King. " Wake him up, Osra."

At this moment the miller of Hofbau sat up in his chair and gave a great sneeze, and by this sound the priest also was awakened. Osra came forward and stood between them. The miller looked at her, and tilted his red cap forward in order that he might scratch his head. Then he looked across to the priest, and said:

"It is she, father. She has come." The priest rubbed his hands together, and smiled uncomfortably.

"We waited two hours," said he, glancing at the clock. " See, it is three o'clock now."

"I am sorry you waited so long," said Osra, "but I could not come before. And— and now that lam come, I cannot——" But here she paused in great distress and confusion, not knowing how to break her sad tidings to the miller of Hofbau. v The miller drew his legs up under his chair and regarded Osra with a grave air.

" You should have been here at eleven," said he, "I went to the church at eleven, and the priest Was there, and my cousin Hans to act as my groom, and my cousin Gertrude to be your, maid, and there we waited hard on two hours, and you did*not come."

" I am very sorry," pleaded Princess Osra, and the King laughed low to himself behind the water butt, being much amused at her distress and her humility.

" And now that you are come," pursued the miller, scratching his head again, "I do not know what we are to do." And he looked again at tha priest, seeking counsel.

At this the Princess Osra, thinking that an opportunity had come, took the purse of €00 crowns from under her cloak and laid it on the table.

" What is this ?" said the miller, for the first time showing some eagerness.

"They are for you," said Osra, and she watched him while he unfastened the purse. Then he poured the crowns out on the table and counted them one by one till he. had told all tho 600. Then he raised his hands above his head, let them fall again, sighed slightly, and looked across at the priest.

"I warned you not to be in such a hurry, friend miller," remarked the priest.

"I waited two hours," said the miller, plaintively, "and you know that she is a handy wench and very fond of me." And he began to gather up tho crowns and return them to the purse.

" I trust I am a handy wench," jaid Osra, smiling, yet still very nervous, "and, indeed, I have a great regard for the miller, but-—' '

"Nay, he does not mean you," interrupted the priest.

"Six hundred," sighed tho miller, "and Gertrude has but 200! Still she is a handy wench and very sturdy. I doubt if you could lift a sack by yourself, as she can," and he looked doubtfully at Osra's slender figure.

" I do not know why you talk of Gertrude," said the Princess, petulantly. "What is Gertrude to me?" ,

" Why, I take it that she is nothing at all to you," answered the priest, folding his hands on his lap and smiling placidly. " Still, for my part, I bade him wait a little longer."

I waited two hours," said the miller. "And Gertrude urged me, saying that you would not come, and that she would look after me better than you, being one of the family. And ehe said that it was hard that she should have no husband, while her own cousin married a stranger. And since it was all the same to me, provided I got a handy and sturdy wenoh— — "

"What!" cried the Princess Osra; and the King was co interested that he rose up from behind the water butt, and leaning his elbows on the window sill looked in and saw all that happened.

"It being," pursued the miller of Hofbau, " all the same to me so. that I.got what I wanted, why, when you did not come — — "

" He married his cousin," said the priest.

A sudden loud burst of laughter came from tho window. All three turned round, but the Kingducked his head and crouched again behind the water butt before they saw him.

"Who was that ? " cried the priest.

"A lad that came to hold my horse," answered Osra hastily, and then she turned fiercely on the miller.

" And that," she said, " was all you wanted ! I thought you loved me," " Ay, I liked you very well," said the miller. " You are a handy——" A stamp of her foot drowned the rest. " But you should have come in time," he went on. "And this Gertrude— is she pretty?" de* manded Osra.

" Gertrude is well enough," said the miller. " But she haa only 200 crowns." And he put the purse, now full again, on the table with a resigned sigh. "And you shall have no more," cried Osra, snatching up her purse in great rage. " And you and Gertrude may—*" "What of Gertrude?" came at this moment from the door of the room where the sacks were. The Princoss turned round swift as the wind, and saw in the doorway a short and very broad girl, i with a very wide face and straggling hair; the girl's nose was very flat, and her eyes were smsll ; but her great mouth smiled good-humouredly, and, as the Princoss looked, she let slip to the ' ground a sack of flour that she had been carrying lon her baok. , VAye, GMtruia .ia well tnougV ««* "•

miller, looking at her contentedly. " She is very strong and willing."

Then, while Gertrude stood wondering and staring with wide eyes in the doorway, the Princess stepped up to the miller and leaned over him and cried :

" Look at my face, look at my face ! What manner of face is it?"

"It is well enough," said the miller. "But Gertrude is—"

There was a crash upon the floor, and the COO crowns rolled out of the purse and scattered, spinning and rolling hither and thither all over the floor, and into every comer of the room. And Princess Osra cried:

"Have you no eyes?" and then turned away, for her lip was quivering, and she would not have the miller see it. But she turned from the miller. only to face Gertrude, his wife • and Gertrudo's small eyes brightened with sudden intelligence.

"Ah, you are the other girl!" said Gertrude, with much amusement. " And was that your dowry? It is large, lam glad you did not come in time. But see, I'll pick it up for you. Way, don't take on. I dare say you'll]find another husband." And sho passed by Osra, patting her on the shoulder kindly as she went, and then fell on her knees and began to pick up the crowns, crawling after them all over the floor, and holding up her apron to receive the recovered treasure. And Princess Osra stood looking at her.

"Aye, you'll find anolher husband," nodded the priest, encouragingly.

"Aye, you'll find another husband," assented the miller, placidly. " And just aa one girl is pretty nearly as good as another, if she is handy and sturdy, so one husband is as good as another if he can keep a house over you."

Princess Osra said nothing. But Gertrude, having picked up the crowns, came to her with a full apron, and said:

" Hold up your lap, and I'll pour them in. They'll get you a good husband."

The Princess Osra suddenly bent and kissed Gertrude's cheek, and she eaid gently:

"I hope you have got a good husband, my dear; but let him do some work for himself. And keep the 600 crowns as a present from me, for he will value you more with 800 than with 200."

The eyes of all three were fired on her in wonder and almost in fear, for her tone and manner now were different. Then she turned to]the miller; and she bit her lip, and dashed her hand once across her eye*, and said :

•** And you, miller, are the only sensible man I have found in all the kingdom. Therefore good luck and a good wife to you." And she gave a little, short laugh, and turned and walked out of the cottage, leaving them all spellbound in wonder. But the miller rose from his chair and ran. to the door, and when he reaohed it the King was just lifting Osra on to her horse; and the miller knew the King, and stood there with i eyes wide and cheeks bulged ia wonder, and he i ould gasp out no moro than "the King, the King ! " before Budolf and Osra had ridden away. And they could none of them, neither tho miller, nor Gertrude, nor the priest, tell what the matter meant, until one day King Budolf rode again to the miller at Hofbau, and having sent for the priest told the three enough of the truth, saying that the affair was the outcome of a jest at court; and he made each of them a present, and vowed them to secrecy by their fealty and attachment to his person and honour. "Then^jhe would not have married me, any how?" asked the miller. . "I think not, friend," answered Budolf, with a laugh. "Then we are but quits, and all is well. Gertrude, the jug, my la:s ! " And so, indeed, it seemed to the King that they w ere but quits, and he said so to the Princess Osra. But he declared that she had so far prevailed with the miller as to make him desire marriage as a wholesome and a useful thing in itself, although she had not persuaded him thatit was of great moment whom a man married. Therefore he was very anxious to give her the bracelet which he had promised, and more than once prayed her to accept it. But Osra saw tho laugh that lurked in the King's eye, and would not consent to have the bracelet ; and for a long while she did not love to speak of the miller of Hofbau. Yet once, when the King on some occasion cried out impatiently that all men were fools, she said:

" Sire, you forget the miller of Hofbau," and she blushed and laughed and turned her eyes

away.

And the other thing she did which puzzled very greatly Queen Margaret, and all the ladies of the court, and all the waiting women, and all the servant maids, and, in fine, every person, high or low, who saw or heard of it, except the King only. For in winter evenings she took her scissors and her needle, and she cut strips of red ribbon, each foot long and a couple of inches broad; and she embroidered on each and every ono of them a motto or legend; and she affixed the ribbons bearing the legend to each and every one of the mirrors in each of her chambers at Strelsau, at Zenda, and all the other royal residences. And her watting women noticed that whenever she had looked in the mirror and smiled at her own image, or shown other signs of pleasure in it, she would then cast her eyes up to the legend, and seem to read it, and blush a little, and laugh a little, and sigh a little— -the reason for which things they could by no means understand.

For the legend was but this: "Bemember the miller of Hofbau."