Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/20

 be done by some without making too many grimaces, and who even deigned to grant to some the favor of extending to them his horny hand.

The worthy counsellor, Jacob Paumgartner, had to pass the house of master Martin to go on his own. On arriving before the cooper's door, Jacob, after a sign of farewell, was about to continue his road, when master Martin, taking off his fur cap, and bowing as low as his enormous obesity would allow, addressed him in these words—"Could I not have the honor of receiving, for a few minutes, in my humble domicil, my worthy friend the counsellor? I should be too happy if he would do me the favor to allow me to enjoy more of his esteemed conversation."

"By my faith, master Martin," answered Paumgartner, I will very willingly make a short stay under your roof; but, truly, you are too modest in speaking of what belongs to you, as if we did not know that your humble domicil, as it pleases you to call it, is more amply furnished than any other with quantities of furniture and objects of value, whose variety and elegance are the envy of the richest citizens of Nuremberg; and I lay a wager that there is not a great lord who would not be glad to possess such a jewel."

Now there was no exaggeration in the praises lavished on the cooper's abode; for as soon as the door was open, the peristyle, of exquisite architecture, already offered the graceful effect of a little fanciful room. The floor was figured in the wood mosaic very artistically put together; the pannels of the wood work enclosed paintings which were not without merit, and chests, sculptured by the best workmen of that epoch, stood along the walls. It was, at the time we see these two personages enter, suffocatingly hot; a sultry and heavy atmosphere oppressed the breathing on reaching these apartments. For