They were married in dull weather, and spent a delightful honeymoon.
But when spring came and brighter days, the young wife began to feel
lonely; for her husband locked himself, all the day long, in his
study--to work, as he said. He seemed to be always at work; and
whenever he consented to a holiday, it was sure to fall on the
bleakest and dismallest day in the week.
"You are never so gay now as you were last Autumn. I am jealous of
that work of yours. At least," she pleaded, "let me sit with you and
share your affection with it."
But he laughed and denied her: and next day she peered in through the
keyhole of his study.
That same evening she ran away from him: having seen the shadow of
another woman by his side.
Then the poor man--for he had loved his wife--cursed the day of his
birth and led an evil life. This lasted for ten years, and his wife
died in her father's house, unforgiving.
On the day of her funeral, the man said to his shadow--"I see it all.
We were made for each other, so let us marry. You have wrecked my
life and now must save it. Only it is rather hard to marry a wife
whom one can only see by sunlight and moonlight."
So they were married; and spent all their life in the open air,
looking on the naked world and learning its secrets. And his shadow
bore him children, in stony ways and on the bare mountain-side.
And for every child that was born the man felt the pangs of it.
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