Tales and Novels — Volume 01: Moral TalesEdgeworth, Maria
General
Tales and Novels — Volume 01: Moral Tales
Edgeworth, Maria
Fiction
_Witness_.--"Oh, yes, now you put me upon recollecting, I do remember
that Solomon the Jew came in, and asked me where Sophia Mansfeld was;
and it certainly must have been he who took the vase off the tray; for
now I recollect, as I looked round once from the furnace, I saw him with
it in his hand; he was looking at the bottom of it, as I remember: he
said, here are some fine verses, or some such thing; but I was minding
the furnace. That's all I know about the matter."
_Albert_.--"That is enough."
The next witness who came forward was the husband of Sophia
Mansfeld.--He deposed, that on the 29th of April, the day on which the
Prussian Vase was finished, as stated by the former evidence, and sent
to be put into the furnace, he met Sophia Mansfeld in the street: she
was going home to dinner. He asked to see the vase: she said that it
was, she believed, put into the furnace, and that he could not then see
it; that she was sorry he had not come sooner, for that he could have
written the inscription on it for her, and that would have spared her
the shame of telling Count Laniska that she could not read or write.
She added, that the count had written all that was wanting for her. The
witness, being impatient to see the vase, went as fast as he could to
the manufactory, in hopes of getting a sight of it before it was put
into the furnace. He met Solomon the Jew at the door of the manufactory,
who told him that he was too late, that all the vases were in the
furnace; he had just seen them put in. The Jew, as the witness now
recollects, though it did not strike him at the time, was eager to
prevent him from going into the furnace-room. Solomon took him by the
arm, and walked with him up the street, talking to him of some money
which he was to remit to Meissen, to Sophia Mansfeld's father and
mother.
_Albert_ asked the witness on whose account this money was to be
remitted by the Jew to Meissen.
_Witness_.--"The money was to be remitted on Sophia Mansfeld's account."
_Albert_.--"Did she borrow it from the Jew?"
_Witness_.--"No; the Jew owed it to her for work done by her. She had
the art of painting on glass. She had painted some glasses for a large
magic lantern, and several small pictures on glass. She did these things
at the hours when she was not obliged to be at the manufactory. She rose
very early in the morning and worked hard. She sold her work to the Jew
upon condition that he would remit the price agreed upon to her father
and mother, who were old, and depended on her for support."
_Albert_.--"Was the money punctually remitted to her father and mother
by the Jew?"
_Witness_.--"Not a farthing of it was remitted by him, as Sophia
discovered since her return to Meissen."
_Albert_.--"Did you ever hear this Jew say any thing about Sophia
Mansfeld's returning to Saxony?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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