elf by making notes
of them to which I can refer. Unfortunately it seldom happens that I
remember to refer. Thou, however, hast reminded me of them. I will now
seek them out.' And he dragged different articles from the bulging
pocket, laying them carefully on the moss beside him in tidy rows. But
the fact of only one of the two handkerchiefs being there nearly put him
off the track, so much and so long did he marvel where its fellow could
be; also the sight of his extra pair of socks reminded him of the urgent
need they were in of mending, and he broke off his search for the
note-book to hold each up in turn to me and eloquently lament. _'Nein,
nein, was fur Socken!'_ he moaned, with a final shake of the head as he
spread them out too on the moss.

'Yes, they are very bad,' I agreed for the tenth time.

'Bad! They are emblematic.'

'Will you let me mend them? Or rather,' I hastily added, 'cause them to
be mended?' For my aversion to needles is at least as great as
Charlotte's.

'No, no--what is the use? There are cupboards full of socks like them in
Bonn, skeletons of that which once was socks, mere outlines filled in
with holes.'

'And all are emblematic?'

'Every single one.' But this time he looked at me with a twinkle in his
eye.

'I don't think,' I said, 'that I'd let my soul be ruffled by a sock. If
it offended me I'd throw it away and buy some more.'

'Behold wisdom,' cried the Professor gaily, 'proceeding from the mouth
of an intellectual suckling!' And without more ado he flung both the
socks into the Hertha See. There they lay, like strange flowers of
yellow wool, motionless on the face of the mystic waters.

'And now the note-book?' I asked; for he had relapsed into immobility,
and was watching the socks with abstracted eyes.

'_Ach_ yes--the note-book.'

Being heavy, it was at the very bottom of what was more like a sack in
size than a pocket; but once he had run his glance over the latest
entries he began very volubly to tell me what he had been doing all
night. It had been an even busier night than mine. Charlotte, he
explained, had left Sassnitz by the Berlin train, and had taken a ticket
for Berlin, as he ascertained at the booking-office, a few minutes
before he took his. He arrived at the very last moment, yet as he jumped
into the just departing train he caught sight of her sitting in a
ladies' compartment. She also caught sight of him. 'I therefore gave a
sigh of satisfaction,' he cont