So much was he still at this moment Criminal Examiner, that among
the first thoughts or feelings which the mysterious letter excited
in him was this: It can be a trick, a foolery. But in the next
moment it occurred to him, that never to any living soul had he
mentioned his bold figure of the high-seat pillars, and still less
revealed the mysterious, to him so valued, syllable--geb--. No
doubt could exist: the fine, perfumed paper, the delicate lady
handwriting, and the few significant words testified, that the
billet which once in youthful, sanguine longing he had entrusted
to the winds of heaven, had come to a lady, and that in one way or
another she had found him out. He remembered very well, that a
single time, five or six weeks before, he had in a numerous
company mentioned that incident, and he did not doubt that the
story had extended itself as ripples do, when one throws a stone
into the water; but where in the whole town, or indeed the land,
had the ripple hit the exact point? He looked again at the
envelope. It bore the stamp of the Copenhagen city mail: that was
all. But that showed with some probability that the writer lived
in Copenhagen, and maybe at this moment she looked down upon him
from one of the many windows; for now he stood by the fountain.
There was something in the paper, the handwriting, or more
properly perhaps in the secrecy, that made her seem young,
spirited, beautiful, piquant.
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