fell into her role.

"To be frank," he said to Lena, "I am inexperienced in the arts of love.
I am too proud to kowtow to the berobed and bodiced idol. A woman is a
woman, and a man is a man. They delude themselves and each other, or try
to, into believing that each woman is a special person, and each man a
man to himself. Idiocy!"

The prostitute grinned.

He walked back and forth; the room was just large enough to allow him to
take three steps. He recalled the expression on Eleanore's face during
the performance of the symphony; his greedy eyes had rested on her all
the while. He became enraged: "You don't imagine that progress can be
made by such amateurish efforts?" he said with a roar. "It is all
hocus-pocus. There is as a matter of fact no such thing as progress in
art, any more than there is progress in the course of the stars.
Listen!"

He bellowed forth the first motif from the "Sonata quasi una fantasia"
of Mozart: "Listen to this: Da--dada--da--daddaa! Is it possible to
progress beyond that? Don't let them make a fool of you, my angel. Be
honest with yourself. He has hypnotised you. He has turned your
unsuspecting heart upside down. Look at me! Are you afraid of me? I will
do all in my power for you. Give me your hand. Speak to me!"

The prostitute was obliged to stretch out her arms. He sat down beside
her with a solemn ceremoniousness. Then he removed the pin from her
hat, and laid the hat tenderly to one side. She had to lean her head on
his shoulder.

With that he fell into a dreamy meditation.

XIII

Philippina came up to Gertrude in the living room. Daniel was not at
home. Philippina was humming the latest street song, the refrain of
which ran as follows:

_Drah' di, Madel, drah' di,
Morgen kommt der Mahdi._

"There it is," said Philippina, and threw a ball of yarn on the table.

Gertrude had yielded to the girl's importunities, and was addressing her
now with the familiar "thou" and allowing Philippina to do the same in
speaking to her. "We are after all relatives, you know, Gertrude," said
Philippina.

Gertrude was afraid of Philippina; but she had thus far found no means
of defending herself against her exaggerated eagerness to help her with
the housework. And she felt in Philippina's presence what she felt in
the presence of no one else--a sense of shame at her own condition.

Philippina, in fact, saw something indecent in Gertrude's pregn