Beauty of Form and Beauty of Mind · page 21 2101Her appearance created a new atmosphere in the doll's house, and air was really required, they all owned that.102They felt the want of a change of air, and consequently the young couple and their mother travelled to Italy.103"Thank heaven we are at home again within our own four walls," said mamma-in-law and daughter both, on their return after a year's absence.104"There is no real pleasure in travelling," said mamma; "to tell the truth, it's very wearisome; I beg pardon for saying so.105I was soon very tired of it, although I had my children with me; and, besides, it's very expensive work travelling, very expensive.106And all those galleries one is expected to see, and the quantity of things you are obliged to run after!107It must be done, for very shame; you are sure to be asked when you come back if you have seen everything, and will most likely be told that you've omitted to see what was best worth seeing of all.108I got tired at last of those endless Madonnas; I began to think I was turning into a Madonna myself."109"And then the living, mamma," said Kaela.110"Yes, indeed," she replied, "no such a thing as a respectable meat soup--their cookery is miserable stuff."111The journey had also tired Kaela; but she was always fatigued, that was the worst of it.112So they sent for Sophy, and she was taken into the house to reside with them, and her presence there was a great advantage.113Mamma-in-law acknowledged that Sophy was not only a clever housewife, but well-informed and accomplished, though that could hardly be expected in a person of her limited means.114She was also a generous-hearted, faithful girl; she showed that thoroughly while Kaela lay sick, fading away.115When the casket is everything, the casket should be strong, or else all is over.116And all was over with the casket, for Kaela died.117"She was beautiful," said her mother; "she was quite different from the beauties they call 'antiques,' for they are so damaged.118A beauty ought to be perfect, and Kaela was a perfect beauty."119Alfred wept, and mamma wept, and they both wore mourning.120The black dress suited mamma very well, and she wore mourning the longest.121She had also to experience another grief in seeing Alfred marry again, marry Sophy, who was nothing at all to look at. "122He's gone to the very extreme," said mamma-in-law; "he has gone from the most beautiful to the ugliest, and he has forgotten his first wife.123Men have no constancy.124My husband was a very different man,--but then he died before me."125"'Pygmalion loved his Galatea,' was in the song they sung at my first wedding," said Alfred; "I once fell in love with a beautiful statue, which awoke to life in my arms; but the kindred soul, which is a gift from heaven, the angel who can feel and sympathize with and elevate us, I have not found and won till now.126You came, Sophy, not in the glory of outward beauty, though you are even fairer than is necessary.127The chief thing still remains.128You came to teach the sculptor that his work is but dust and clay only, an outward form made of a material that decays, and that what we should seek to obtain is the ethereal essence of mind and spirit.129Poor Kaela! our life was but as a meeting by the way-side; in yonder world, where we shall know each other from a union of mind, we shall be but mere acquaintances."130"That was not a loving speech," said Sophy, "nor spoken like a Christian.131In a future state, where there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage, but where, as you say, souls are attracted to each other by sympathy; there everything beautiful develops itself, and is raised to a higher state of existence: her soul will acquire such completeness that it may harmonize with yours, even more than mine, and you will then once more utter your first rapturous exclamation of your love, 'Beautiful, most beautiful!'"1 2← previousThe Conceited Apple-branchnext →The Beetle Who Went on His Travels↑ back to Fairy Tales of Hans Christian AndersenThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/7/page/2/