K. seeking Pepi

Perhaps I treated you unjustly when first I saw you, and for this
perhaps you will forgive me in time or at least take empathy in
understanding how little my eyes saw then.  For you were just a
chambermaid, a flitty young thing taking on a post too great for your
lithe stature who would deck one's self in the trappings of artificial
beauty in protest to these charges, while the woman I would endeavor
to make mine hovered over in the phantoms of my mind.

Yet what could you have seen?  A stranger, a traveler without status,
station or rank wandered into your village with no knowledge
or wisdom concerning the Castle.  It was in my heart to penetrate into
that cold stone crucible of dreams, the machinations of the elves
working therein to divine.  Yet my errand was foolhearted;  not for my
aspirations, which were solely the shadows of wind, nor for
my efforts for in these tireless was I until the great sleep prevented
my final approach.  But simply because such is the way things may be.

K., rescuer of maidens, you called me, and I nearly blushed.  None
have I saved, and indeed my dark countenance forbids contact with any
save Frieda's sort, who I know now you were right in saying that she
played me through to her intrigues.  But were I the Count himself, and
the Castle's power was laid at my feet, no maiden would I wish rescue
save for you.  For to hear your words, which speak so highly of me and
yet also to the great harms I have visited upon you, I find my heart
lifted.  The Castle is no more than a curiousity -- it is your heart
that now calls to me.

If you still would have me as I am, and make no more promise than to
keep me, then I would long to join you in companionship in this life.
No more shall my dreams fly higher than my post at your side, and to
than end without an end, shall they fly unknowing the limits of sky.
We have scarcely glanced at one another, yet I know that our hearts
are matched, and I hope that I see in your eyes that you feel this way
as well.  Shall we stay in the village?  Or to the wide world should
we cast our fortune?