Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/69

Rh Valentine. The poor boy, already disgusted with the trade by his forced intimacy with his new workshop companions, had no longer spirit to work; he felt a want of confidence before an enterprise whose want of success would cause all his dreams of happiness to vanish. A vague instinct, that he could not define, repeated to him unceasingly that he would fail under the weight of his task, and he became suddenly ashamed at having condemned himself to a manual labor which was so repugnant to his vocation of artist. The disgrace of Reinhold was always present to his memory. From time to time, to withdraw himself from the painful besetting of his fears, he feigned indisposition to force himself from the duty of going to the work-shop, and he hurried away to pass whole hours at Saint Sebald's church, examining the Peter Fischer's master-piece of carving, and exclaiming with inspired exaltation:—"Oh, Heavenly Father! to imagine such things and have the power in one's self to execute them, is it not the greatest happiness on earth?" and when, on recovering from these ecstacies, the reality of the staves and hoops of master Martin's workshop stared him in the face, when he thought that Rosa would be the price of a miserable tun fabricated with more or less art, he felt despair consuming his strength, and his brain wandering. At night, Reinhold appeared in his dreams, and spread out before him inimitable models whose realization would have immortalized the founder. And, in these marvellous designs, the figure of Rosa was always the principal subject, framed in the most capricious mixture of foliage and flowers. All this seemed to become animated, grow green and flourish; the metal, like a brilliant mirror, reflected the image of the adored young girl; Frederick extended his aims towards her, calling her by the sweetest names; but when he thought to reach her, the fantastic picture evaporated like a fugitive haze. On awaking, the poor artist detested a little more his sad future as cooper. An idea came into his head that he would go and confide his grief to his old master Johannes Holzschuer. Charmed to 6*