"The concert's over!" he cried, "and here's a check for eighty pounds.
Proceed! Tear down; construct! I leave tonight for foreign parts. Write me
when all is done. Adieu."

The interview terminated.

The clown, who had overheard this fair discourse, now left the castle; and
retiring to a secluded spot, where--a willow drooped sadly o'er the brook,
he laid him down and died.

The dwarf to foreign parts now hied, and when twelve months had passed, and
he had had no news of his grand castle, he returned home.

He found the castle finished--all but the roof and walls. The deep cellars,
with their marble copings just peeping 'neath the heavy mass of weeds that
clustered to their very edge, were dark and solemn. The sly fox slunk along
their passages, and grim serpents reared their heads from many a gloomy
corner.

The dwarf, he gazed in silence!

By heavy sighs his breast was heaven, and black thoughts made his soul like
Hades!

Anon he mounted in hot haste, and rode unto the giant's castle on the
distant hills. By sundown, the dwarf he saw on the horizon a great blue
mass, the sight of which did move his inmost being.

"It is his castle!" quoth he, and he gave his steed free rein.