" dance you shall , " said he , " dance in your red shoes till you are pale and cold , till your skin shrivels up and you are a skeleton ! dance you shall , from door to door , and where proud and wicked children live you shall knock , so that they may hear you and fear you ! dance you shall , dance-- ! " " mercy ! " cried karen . but she did not hear what the angel answered , for the shoes carried her through the gate into the fields , along highways and byways , and unceasingly she had to dance . one morning she danced past a door that she knew well ; they were singing a psalm inside , and a coffin was being carried out covered with flowers . then she knew that she was forsaken by every one and damned by the angel of god .
the shoes kept dancing .
why didn't karen hear what the angel answered ?
why didn't karen hear what the angel answered ?