Simon the Fiddler

Simon runs into Doris and Mercedes at the market; he thanks Mercedes for her help and talks to Doris for a while. The two are mutually entranced with one another. Doris tells him that her vision is not good since she lost her eyeglasses, and they discuss their desire to just spend hours talking to one another. She tells him that she has half a year left on her contract and is frustrated that she cannot court anyone. Soldiers approach, and Simon quickly pretends to be a fruit merchant to allow him to talk to Doris a bit longer.

After the soldiers pass, Doris and Simon move into the nearby church, and Doris tells Simon that she cannot be alone in the house with the colonel. He constantly tries to come near her and touch her and has asked her to join him in the bedroom before. Further, the family hates each other, and it is harming Josephine. Doris explains that she is going to leave when she can afford passage home again, which she is managing by teaching piano behind the colonel’s back and building good relationships with other families. Simon expresses his desire to marry her, which she is not entirely opposed to, but she insists that she “must be sure of [herself]” first (243).