te. Hoeflinger,
too, noticed it and liked to hear it, without relaxing his stiff back
and sharing in the merriment. His head was full of a hundred schemes
and a thousand cares concerning the strike and the future of other
people's children; in that unequal triangle he was the remotest angle.
At least so it seemed in day-time and while Victor was present.
Pratteler would have liked to know how the couple looked at each other
and what they talked about when they were alone; he could not imagine
it. But he never noticed any disagreement or coolness. Spiele teased
her husband with all sorts of pointed allusions, as behooved a tailor's
daughter, to his difficult social responsibilities; but he never took
it ill. Even when she trespassed beyond the permissible, he preserved
his equanimity and only allowed an ironical smile to play about his
lips. Then she would grow angry, call him wooden, and ask Victor to
play cards with her. But the long diplomat held his own so cleverly
that she could not keep away from him for any length of time. At the
second or third game she would laugh, or in dealing throw eight cards
at him, and he would placidly take them up, even if he had been reading
a book. Victor never knew the moods of the pretty woman to produce even
a shadow of annoyance or to spoil an evening.

On fine Sundays they went out on their wheels into the country. The two
men had Spiele between them. In dodging Hoeflinger rode ahead and
Pratteler remained behind. Sometimes they had to keep long in that
order, because there were many pedestrians on the road. Then
Hoeflinger's old and well-worn machine, which did not run freely,
clattered ahead, and the little round bell strapped to the middle bar
tinkled incessantly. On account of his long legs Hoeflinger sat rather
high; it was quite a distance from his saddle to the button on his cap.
Spiele sat two heads lower. Her legs were not long; she reached up only
to her husband's shoulders. Victor was the last, bent double over his
wheel as though he had cramps. From the front bar extended two bent
cowhorns which he held at their very ends, so that he seemed to fly
across the road with arms outstretched. But now and then his animated
glance would take in Spiele's trim figure and sometimes he remained
behind in order to take a good start and to rush on like an express
train. He especially admired Spiele's small feet which so strongly and
cleverly worked the pedals and showed a commendabl