,
heartily, like a child. "Oh, how sly you are; you only said that just
to get me to raise my veil, didn't you? Ah, I thought so; but you may
just wait till you are blue first ... just for punishment."

We began to laugh and jest; we talked incessantly all the time. I do
not know what I said, I was so happy. She told me that she had seen me
once before, a long time ago, in the theatre. I had then comrades with
me, and I behaved like a madman; I must certainly have been tipsy that
time too, more's the shame.

Why did she think that?

Oh, I had laughed so.

"Really, a-ah yes; I used to laugh a lot in those days."

"But now not any more?"

"Oh yes; now too. It is a splendid thing to exist sometimes."

We reached Carl Johann. She said: "Now we won't go any farther," and we
returned through University Street. When we arrived at the fountain
once more I slackened my pace a little; I knew that I could not go any
farther with her.

"Well, now you must turn back here," she said, and stopped.

"Yes, I suppose I must."

But a second after she thought I might as well go as far as the door
with her. Gracious me, there couldn't be anything wrong in that, could
there?

"No," I replied.

But when we were standing at the door all my misery confronted me
clearly. How was one to keep up one's courage when one was so broken
down? Here I stood before a young lady, dirty, ragged, torn, disfigured
by hunger, unwashed, and only half-clad; it was enough to make one sink
into the earth. I shrank into myself, bent my head involuntarily, and
said:

"May I not meet you any more then?"

I had no hope of being permitted to see her again. I almost wished for
a sharp No, that would pull me together a bit and render me callous.

"Yes," she whispered softly, almost inaudibly.

"When?"

"I don't know."

A pause....

"Won't you be so kind as to lift your veil, only just for a minute," I
asked. "So that I can see whom I have been talking to. Just for one
moment, for indeed I must see whom I have been talking to."

Another pause....

"You can meet me outside here on Tuesday evening," she said. "Will you?"

"Yes, dear lady, if I have permission to."

"At eight o'clock."

"Very well."

I stroked down her cloak with my hand, merely to have an excuse for
touching her. It was a delight to me to be so near her.

"And you mustn't think all too badly of me," she added; she was smiling
again.

"No."

Suddenly she made a resolu