《安徒生童话英文版》第31章

　　For a moment, Alfred's respect for Kaela's mamma underwent asudden shock, and lessened considerably; but, dazzled by the lightwhich surrounded Kaela, he soon found it quite natural that the oldlady should have no eye for color. After all, it was of very littleconsequence; for Kaela's mamma had the best of all possessions;namely, Kaela herself.

　　Alfred and Kaela were betrothed, which was a very naturalresult; and the betrothal was announced in the newspaper of the littletown. Mama purchased thirty copies of the paper, that she might cutout the paragraph and send it to friends and acquaintances. Thebetrothed pair were very happy, and the mother was happy too. She saidit seemed like connecting herself with Thorwalsden.

　　"You are a true successor of Thorwalsden," she said to Alfred; andit seemed to him as if, in this instance, mamma had said a cleverthing. Kaela was silent; but her eyes shone, her lips smiled, everymovement was graceful,- in fact, she was beautiful; that cannot berepeated too often. Alfred decided to take a bust of Kaela as wellas of her mother. They sat to him accordingly, and saw how hemoulded and formed the soft clay with his fingers.

　　"I suppose it is only on our account that you perform thiscommon-place work yourself, instead of leaving it to your servant todo all that sticking together."

　　"It is really necessary that I should mould the clay myself," hereplied.

　　"Ah, yes, you are always so polite," said mamma, with a smile; andKaela silently pressed his hand, all soiled as it was with the clay.

　　Then he unfolded to them both the beauties of Nature, in all herworks; he pointed out to them how, in the scale of creation, inanimatematter was inferior to animate nature; the plant above the mineral,the animal above the plant, and man above them all. He strove toshow them how the beauty of the mind could be displayed in the outwardform, and that it was the sculptor's task to seize upon that beauty ofexpression, and produce it in his works. Kaela stood silent, butnodded in approbation of what he said, while mamma-in-law made thefollowing confession:-

　　"It is difficult to follow you; but I go hobbling along afteryou with my thoughts, though what you say makes my head whirl roundand round. Still I contrive to lay hold on some of it."

　　Kaela's beauty had a firm hold on Alfred; it filled his soul,and held a mastery over him. Beauty beamed from Kaela's every feature,glittered in her eyes, lurked in the corners of her mouth, andpervaded every movement of her agile fingers. Alfred, the sculptor,saw this. He spoke only to her, thought only of her, and the twobecame one; and so it may be said she spoke much, for he was alwaystalking to her; and he and she were one. Such was the betrothal, andthen came the wedding, with bride's-maids and wedding presents, allduly mentioned in the wedding speech. Mamma-in-law had set upThorwalsden's bust at the end of the table, attired in adressing-gown; it was her fancy that he should be a guest. Songswere sung, and cheers given; for it was a gay wedding, and they were ahandsome pair. "Pygmalion loved his Galatea," said one of the songs.

　　"Ah, that is some of your mythologies," said mamma-in-law.

　　Next day the youthful pair started for Copenhagen, where they wereto live; mamma-in-law accompanied them, to attend to the "coarsework," as she always called the domestic arrangements. Kaela lookedlike a doll in a doll's house, for everything was bright and new,and so fine. There they sat, all three; and as for Alfred, a proverbmay describe his position- he looked like a swan amongst the geese.The magic of form had enchanted him; he had looked at the casketwithout caring to inquire what it contained, and that omission oftenbrings the greatest unhappiness into married life. The casket may beinjured, the gilding may fall off, and then the purchaser regretshis bargain.

　　In a large party it is very disagreeable to find a button givingway, with no studs at hand to fall back upon; but it is worse still ina large company to be conscious that your wife and mother-in-law aretalking nonsense, and that you cannot depend upon yourself toproduce a little ready wit to carry off the stupidity of the wholeaffair.

　　The young married pair often sat together hand in hand; he wouldtalk, but she could only now and then let fall a word in the samemelodious voice, the same bell-like tones. It was a mental relief whenSophy, one of her friends, came to pay them a visit. Sophy was not,pretty. She was, however, quite free from any physical deformity,although Kaela used to say she was a little crooked; but no eye,save an intimate acquaintance, would have noticed it. She was a verysensible girl, yet it never occurred to her that she might be adangerous person in such a house. Her appearance created a newatmosphere in the doll's house, and air was really required, theyall owned that. They felt the want of a change of air, andconsequently the young couple and their mother travelled to Italy.

　　"Thank heaven we are at home again within our own four walls,"said mamma-in-law and daughter both, on their return after a year'sabsence.

　　"There is no real pleasure in travelling," said mamma; "to tellthe truth, it's very wearisome; I beg pardon for saying so. I was soonvery tired of it, although I had my children with me; and, besides,it's very expensive work travelling, very expensive. And all thosegalleries one is expected to see, and the quantity of things you areobliged to run after!