TH E P U PP ET TH EA TER
71
could one notice the first traces of vanity, a fact produced by the
favor of women. It so happened that only a short time before, in
Paris, he and I had seen the statue of the youth pulling a splinter
from his foot; the cast
cff
that statue is well known and can be seen
in most German collections. He was reminded of it, when he looked
into the big mirror, while putting his foot on the footstool in order
to dry it after the bath; he smiled and told me what a discovery he
had made. Indeed, I, too, had made the same observation at that
moment; but, whether it was that I wanted to examine the certainty
of his taste for harmony, or whether I wanted to challenge his vanity,
I laughed and replied that he was probably seeing things. He blushed
and lifted his foot a second time to show it to me: but the attempt
failed, as one could easily have foreseen. Confused, he lifted his
foot a third, a fourth, even a tenth time: in vain, he was unable to
repeat the same movement. What am I saying? The movements he
made had such comical features that I could hardly refrain from
laughing. From that day on, almost from the moment on, an in–
explicable transformation took place in him. He began to stand in
front of the mirror all day long, and one charm after another fell
from him. An invisible and inexplicable power seemed to throw itself,
like an iron net, around the free play of his gestures, and after a year,
there was no longer any trace of charm to be discovered in him,
that charm that had so delighted the eyes of those around him. Even
now, there is still one person alive who witnessed that strange and
unhappy incident, and who could confirm it word for word as I have
told it to you.
"In this connection," Mr. C. said, kindly, "I must tell you
another story which, you will easily understand, also belongs here.
I happened to be traveling in Russia and found myself on the
country estate of l\1r. von G., a Livonian nobleman, whose sons
were then busily practicing the art of fencing. The eldest, especially,
who had just returned from a university, regarded himself as a
virtuoso, and one morning, in his room he offered me a foil. We
fought, but it happened that I was superior to him. Passion added
to
his confusion. Almost every blow I struck was successful and his
rapier finally flew into a corner. Half jestingly, half sensitively, he
said, while picking it up, that he had found his master; but every–
thing in this world found its own, in turn, and he proposed to lead
me to my master. The brothers laughed out loud and cried: Let's
gc ! Let's go down into the wood shed! And they took me by the
hand and led me to a bear which Mr. von G., their father, was
having educated on his place. When I stepped in front of him, to
