chweizerhof
permitted Rosina to enjoy (for a consideration), and there muse in
company with his own violets, while he waited and turned his cane over
and over in his gloved hands.

Then Ottillie opened the portieres beyond, and Rosina appeared between
them, delightfully cool and fresh-looking, and flatteringly glad to see
him.

"We seem like quite long friends, do we not?" he said, as he bent above
her hand and kissed it lightly.

"Yes, certainly, I feel that I have the sensation of at any rate three
weeks," she answered; and then she sank luxuriously down in a great
_fauteuil_, and was conscious of an all-pervading well-content that it
should be too warm to go out, and that he should be there opposite her
while she must remain within. She was curious about this man who was so
out of the ordinary, and the path along which her curiosity led her
seemed a most attractive one.

"Why do you say three weeks," he asked; "why not three months or three
years?"

"But in three years one learns to know another so well, and I do not
feel--"

"Oh," he interrupted, "it is better as it is; perhaps you may be like I
am, and get weary always soon, and then have no longer any wish to see
me."

"Do you get tired of every one?"

He passed his hand across his eyes and sighed and smiled together.

"Yes, madame," he said, and there was a sad note in his voice, "I get
often tired. And it is bad, because I must depend so deeply on who I
speak with for my mind to be able to work after. _Comprenez-vous?_"

She made a movement of assent that he seemed to have paused for, and he
continued.

"When I meet a stranger I must always wonder how soon I shall be
finished with him. It comes very soon with nearly all."

"And are you sure that you are always the weary one?"

He looked blank for a moment, then,

"I have already bore you; yes?"

"Not at all, but I was warned this morning that you might possibly
commit such a crime."

"And have I?"

She looked on his earnestness and smiled.

"Have I?" he reiterated; "yes?"

Then she spoke suddenly.

"Why do foreigners always say 'yes' at the end of every question that
they ask in English? I get so tired of it, it's so superfluous. Why do
they do it?"

He reflected.

"It is polite," he said, after a moment. "I ask you, 'Do I bore you?'
and then I ask you, 'Do I?'"

"But why do you think that it is polite to ask me twice?"

He reflected again, and then replied:

"You are equally