Then St. Barbara hung her head quite down, and said she was very
sorry she had been so foolish; and kissed Neith; and stood
thinking a minute: and then her eyes got bright again, and she
said, she would go directly and build a chapel with five windows
in it; four for the four cardinal virtues, and one for humility,
in the middle, bigger than the rest. And Neith very nearly laughed
quite out, I thought; certainly her beautiful lips lost all their
sternness for an instant; then she said, "Well, love, build it,
but do not put so many colors into your windows as you usually do;
else no one will be able to see to read, inside: and when it is
built, let a poor village priest consecrate it, and not an
archbishop." St. Barbara started a little, I thought, and turned
as if to say something; but changed her mind, and gathered up her
train, and went out. And Neith bent herself again to her loom, in
which she was weaving a web of strange dark colors, I thought; but
perhaps it was only after the glittering of St. Barbara's
embroidered train: and I tried to make out the figures in Neith's
web, and confused myself among them, as one always does in dreams;
and then the dream changed altogether, and I found myself, all at
once, among a crowd of little Gothic and Egyptian spirits, who
were quarreling: at least the Gothic ones were trying to quarrel;
for the Egyptian ones only sat with their hands on their knees,
and their aprons sticking out very stiffly; and stared. And after
a while I began to understand what the matter was. It seemed that
some of the troublesome building imps, who meddle and make
continually, even in the best Gothic work, had been listening to
St. Barbara's talk with Neith; and had made up their minds that
Neith had no workpeople who could build against them. They were
but dull imps, as you may fancy by their thinking that; and never
had done much, except disturbing the great Gothic building angels
at their work, and playing tricks to each other; indeed, of late
they had been living years and years, like bats, up under the
cornices of Strasbourg and Cologne cathedrals, with nothing to do
but to make mouths at the people below. However, they thought they
knew everything about tower building; and those who had heard what
Neith said, told the rest; and they all flew down directly,
chattering in German, like jackdaws, to show Neith's people what
they could do. And they had found some of Neith's old workpeople
somewhere near Sais, sitting in the sun, with their hands on their
knees; and abused them heartily: and Neith's people did not mind
at first, but, after a while, they seemed to get tired of the
noise; and one or two rose up slowly, and laid hold of their
measuring rods, and said, "If St. Barbara's people liked to build
with them, tower against pyramid, they would show them how to lay
stones."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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