Page:Karl Gjellerup - Minna, A novel - 1913.djvu/190

 rings and crests; the chains rattled, it creaked in all the fastenings, the wheels grated, and under the enormous moving mass the cobbles groaned so that one was tempted to cover one's ears. Nothing of all this was new to me, but with Minna as my companion it assumed a different and familiar aspect, for I regarded the smallest details with love, because they belonged to the associations which from childhood had both surrounded her and influenced her imagination.

This cosy bit of the old city was suddenly cut in two by the distinguished Prager Strassë, the modern artery of the residential quarter with its pulsing life of moving carriages, gaily dressed crowds, and handsome shops. We came into new broad streets, which, apart from a few lonely pedestrians and crawling cabs, were quite empty. The rows of flowers on the balconies showed up brightly against the grey mass. There were hardly any shops; on every second door was written "Pension," and over its neighbours "Hôtel garni." This did not suit our taste; in order to reach the villa quarter in our mock "house-hunting," we should have chosen the shortest way, if in this rectangular quarter the distances had not been the same length.

We soon had fine gravel under our feet, and were walking under the shade of a small avenue of maples. Dark acacias, glittering silver poplars, transparent birch tops, massive domes of plane, lime foliage, and copper beach, mixed with numerous varieties of rare bushes and trees, towered on both sides over railings, hedges, and low walls. Here and there the white limbs of a statue shone between flowers and leaves, or the fine spray of a fountain mounted and descended with gentle splashing in the middle of a fertile mass of foliage. Villa followed villa, glorious mixtures of country seats and palaces with fine