!"

"Go out and wander about the streets, at night."

"I didn't mean to be so late," she said, and folded the veil with an
exaggerated care. "But I was hindered; I had a little adventure."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, nothing much. A man followed me--and I couldn't get rid of him."

"Go on, please!" He was astonished at the severity of his own voice.

"Oh, don't be so serious, Maurice!" She had folded the veil to a neat
square, stuck three hatpins in it, and thrown it with her hat and
jacket on the sofa. "No one has tried to murder me," she said, and
raised both her hands to her hair. "I was standing before Haase's
window--the big jeweller's in the PETERSTRASSE, you know. I've always
loved jewellers' windows--especially at night, when they're lighted up.
As a child, I thought heaven must be like the glitter of diamonds on
blue velvet--the Jasper Sea, you know, and the pearly floor."

"Never mind that now!"

"Well, I was standing there, looking in, longer perhaps than I knew. I
felt that some one was beside me, but I didn't see who it was, till I
heard a man's voice say: 'SCHONE SACHEN, FRAULEIN, WAS?' Of course, I
took no notice; but I didn't run away, as if I were afraid of him. I
went on looking into the window, till he said: 'DARF ICH IHNEN ETWASS
KAUFEN?'and more nonsense of the same kind. Then I thought it was time
to go. He followed me down the PETERSTRASSE, and when I came to the
ROSSPLATZ, he was still behind me. So I determined to lead him a dance.
I've been walking about, with him at my heels, for over an hour. In a
quiet street where there was no one in sight, he spoke to me again, and
refused to go away until I told him where I lived. I pretended to
agree, and, on the condition that he didn't follow me any further, I
gave him a number in the QUERSTRASSE; and in case he broke his. word, I
came home that way. I hope he'll spend a pleasant evening looking for
me."

She laughed--her fitful, somewhat unreal laugh, which was always
displeasing to him. To-night, taken in conjunction with her story, and
her unconcerned way of telling it, it jarred on him as never before.

"Let me catch him here, and I'll make it impossible for him to insult a
woman again!" he cried. "For it is an insult though you don't see it in
that light. You laugh as you tell it, as if something amusing had
happened to you. You are so strange sometimes.--Tell me, dearest, WHY
did you go out? When I asked you, you wouldn't come."

"No.