There was once on a time a miller, who had a beautiful daughter, and as she was grown up, he wished that she was provided for, and well married. He thought, “If any good suitor comes and asks for her, I will give her to him.” Not long afterwards, a suitor came, who appeared to be very rich, and as the miller had no fault to find with him, he promised his daughter to him. The maiden, however, did not like him quite so much as a girl should like the man to whom she is engaged, and had no confidence in him. Whenever she saw, or thought of him, she felt a secret horror.
Once he said to her, “Thou art my betrothed, and yet thou hast never once paid me a visit.”
The maiden replied, “I know not where thy house is.”
Then said the bridegroom, “My house is out there in the dark forest.” She tried to excuse herself and said she could not find the way there.