gilt mirror. She wanted to look at him again--there was a something
about him, in his deep voice, even in the way his clothes fitted. From
the room above she heard the heavy dragging sound of Frau Lehmann's
footsteps, and again the old thoughts worried Sabina. If she herself
should one day look like that--feel like that! Yet it would be very
sweet to have a little baby to dress and jump up and down.

"Fraulein--what's your name--what are you smiling at?" called the Young
Man.

She blushed and looked up, hands quiet in her lap, looked across the
empty tables and shook her head.

"Come here, and I'll show you a picture," he commanded.

She went and stood beside him. He opened the book, and Sabina saw a
coloured sketch of a naked girl sitting on the edge of a great, crumpled
bed, a man's opera hat on the back of her head.

He put his hand over the body, leaving only the face exposed, then
scrutinised Sabina closely.

"Well?"

"What do you mean?" she asked, knowing perfectly well.

"Why, it might be your own photograph--the face, I mean--that's as far
as I can judge."

"But the hair's done differently," said Sabina, laughing. She threw back
her head, and the laughter bubbled in her round white throat.

"It's rather a nice picture, don't you think?" he asked. But she was
looking at a curious ring he wore on the hand that covered the girl's
body, and only nodded.

"Ever seen anything like it before?"

"Oh, there's plenty of those funny ones in the illustrated papers."

"How would you like to have your picture taken that way?"

"Me? I'd never let anybody see it. Besides, I haven't got a hat like
that!"

"That's easily remedied."

Again a little silence, broken by Anna throwing up the slide.

Sabina ran into the kitchen.

"Here, take this milk and egg up to the Frau," said Anna. "Who've you
got in there?"

"Got such a funny man! I think he's a little gone here," tapping her
forehead.

Upstairs in the ugly room the Frau sat sewing, a black shawl round her
shoulders, her feet encased in red woollen slippers. The girl put the
milk on a table by her, then stood, polishing a spoon on her apron.

"Nothing else?"

"Na," said the Frau, heaving up in her chair. "Where's my man?"

"He's playing cards over at Snipold's. Do you want him?"

"Dear heaven, leave him alone. I'm nothing. I don't matter... And the
whole day waiting here."

Her hand shook as she wiped the rim of the glass with her fat finger.

"