When in their walks they encountered other burghers, all eyes rested on
the handsome pair, for if Melchior were thin, his figure was tall and his
features good, and there was a strange charm in his big, dark, eyes that
seemed to find more in the woods than was visible to others, moreover the
black clothes of his profession sat as well upon him as did his wife's
white dresses and kerchiefs of costly stuffs upon her. These she was
fond of relieving by a bit of light blue, her favourite colour. The slim
young Italian, with her bowed head and beautiful pale face framed in its
black hair, seemed like an elf who had gone out in her light dress to
dance the May dance in the moonlight and had decked herself with forget-
me-not and gentian.
Whoever saw her felt glad, for it seemed to him as if he had met with a
piece of good fortune, but no one sought to make her acquaintance,
although the doctor had not omitted to take her, soon after their
arrival, to call upon his relatives and the dignitaries of the city.
People had asked them at first to dine, but as Melchior always refused
because of his wife's delicate health, they did not press the matter;
for no one could talk with her as she understood no German, while all who
heard her light cough felt that the doctor was right to guard his fragile
treasure so carefully.
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