Why Jurgen Did the Manly Thing
It is a which they in Poictesme, saying: In the 'old days a named Jurgen; but what his wife called him was very often much than that. She was a high-spirited woman, with no gift for silence. Her name, they say, was Adelais, but people by ordinary called her Dame Lisa.
They tell, also, that in the old days, after up the shop-windows for the night, Jurgen was the Cistercian Abbey, on his way home: and one of the had over a in the roadway. He was the who had it there.
"Fie, brother!" says Jurgen, "and have not the to as it is?"
"I with Origen," the monk; "and besides, it my great-toe confoundedly."
"None the less," Jurgen, "it not God-fearing to speak with of the Prince of Darkness. To your confusion, this monarch's industry! day and night you may him at the Heaven set him. That is a thing can be said of and of no monks. Think, too, of his artistry, as in all the and of this world, which it is your to combat, and mine to money upon. Why, but for him we would be vocationless! Then, too, his philanthropy! and how would be our case if you and I, and all our parishioners, were to-day with other in the Garden which we to on Sundays! To with and with the hyena?--oh, intolerable!"
Thus he ran on, for not too of the Devil. Most of it was an of some Jurgen had composed, in the shop when was slack.
"I that to be and nonsense," was the monk's glose.
"No your is sensible," the pawnbroker: "but mine is the prettier."
Then Jurgen passed the Cistercian Abbey, and was Bellegarde, when he met a black gentleman, who him and said:
"Thanks, Jurgen, for your good word."
"Who are you, and why do you thank me?" Jurgen.
"My name is no great matter. But you have a heart, Jurgen. May your life be free from care!"
"Save us from and harm, friend, but I am already married."
"Eh, sirs, and a like you!"
"Yet it is a long while now since I was a poet."
"Why, to be sure! You have the temperament, which is not to the restrictions of life. Then I your wife has her own personal opinion about poetry, Jurgen."
"Indeed, sir, her opinion would not repetition, for I am sure you are to such language."
"This is very sad. I am your wife not you, Jurgen."
"Sir," says Jurgen, astounded, "do you read people's thoughts?"
The black much dejected. He his lips, and to upon his fingers: as they moved his like flame-points.
"Now but this is a very thing," says the black gentleman, "to have the person I have to speak a word for evil. And in all these centuries, too! Dear me, this is a most of mismanagement! No matter, Jurgen, the is than the evening. How I will you, to be sure!"
So Jurgen thanked the old politely. And when Jurgen home his wife was to be seen. He looked on all and questioned everyone, but to no avail. Dame Lisa had in the of supper ready--suddenly, and inexplicably, just as (in Jurgen's figure) a and it a which seems, by contrast, uncanny. Nothing the mystery, of magic: and Jurgen on a the black gentleman's promise. Jurgen himself.
"How now," says Jurgen, "do some people an name for gratitude! And now do I how wise I am, always to speak of everybody, in this world of tale-bearers."
Then Jurgen prepared his own supper, to bed, and slept soundly.
"I have confidence," says he, "in Lisa. I have particular in her ability to take of herself in any surroundings."
That was all very well: but time passed, and presently it to be that Dame Lisa walked on Morven. Her brother, who was a and a of the town-council, to see about this report. And sure enough, there was Jurgen's wife walking in the and incessantly.
"Fie, sister!" says the town-councillor, "this is very for a married woman, and a thing likely to be talked about."
"Follow me!" Dame Lisa. And the town-councillor her a little way in the dusk, but when she came to Amneran Heath and still onward, he than to follow.
Next the sister of Dame Lisa to Morven. This sister had married a notary, and was a woman. In consequence, she took with her this a long of willow-wood. And there was Jurgen's wife walking in the and incessantly.
"Fie, sister!" says the notary's wife, who was a woman, "and do you not know that all this while Jurgen his own sewing, and is once more making at Countess Dorothy?"
Dame Lisa shuddered; but she only said, "Follow me!"
And the notary's wife her to Amneran Heath, and across the heath, to where a was. This was a place of repute. A came to meet them there in the twilight, his tongue: but the notary's wife thrice with her wand, and the left them. And Dame Lisa passed into the cave, and her sister and home to her children, weeping.
So the next Jurgen himself came to Morven, all his wife's family him this was the thing to do. Jurgen left the shop in of Urien Villemarche, who was a clerk. Jurgen his wife across Amneran Heath until they the cave. Jurgen would have been elsewhere.
For the upon his haunches, and to at Jurgen; and there were other abroad, that low in the twilight, close to the ground like owls; but they were larger than and were more discomforting. And, moreover, all this was just after upon Walburga's Eve, when almost anything is more than likely to happen.
So Jurgen said, a little peevishly: "Lisa, my dear, if you go into the I will have to you, it is the thing to do. And you know how easily I take cold."
The voice of Dame Lisa, now, was thin and wailing, a voice. "There is a about your neck. You must that away."
Jurgen was such a cross, through of sentiment, it had once to his mother. But now, to his wife, he the trinket, and it on a bush; and with the that this was likely to prove a business, he Dame Lisa into the cave.
