The Red Shoes (11)

The Red Shoes (11)
  

  She wanted to sit down on the pauper's garve, where the bitter herbs grew, but for her there was no rest.

  The church door was open and she danced towards it, but an angel, dressed in white, who had on his back great wings that reached almost to the ground, barred her entrance.

  His face was stern and grave, and in his hand he had a broad, shining sword.

  " You shall dance, " he said, " dance in your red shoes until you become pale and thin. Dance till the skin on your face turns yellow and clings to your bones as if you were a skeleton. Dance you shall from door to door, and when you pass a house where proud and vain children live, there you shall knock on the door so that they will see you and fear your face. Dance, you shall dance.... Dance ! "

(11/15)