"After all, I dare say that you have chosen the better course." "In what way?" "Well, if it is impossible to master everything, it is better, no doubt, to get married and have children." "I have only one child." He laughed. "Tell me something about him, and all about your own life in general." They sat down on the divan in the little saloon on front of the Rembrandts. "What have I to tell you about myself? There is nothing in it of the slightest interest. Rather, you tell me about yourself"--she looked at him with admiration--"things have gone so splendidly with you, you are such a celebrated man, you see!" Emil twitched his underlip very slightly, as if discontented. "Why, yes," she continued, undaunted; "quite recently I saw your portrait in an illustrated paper." "Yes, yes," he said impatiently. "But I always knew that you would make a name for yourself," she added. "Do you still remember how you played the Mendelssohn Concerto at that final examination at the Conservatoire? Everybody said the same thing then." "I beg you, my dear girl, don't, please, let us have any more of these mutual compliments! Tell me, what sort of a man was your late husband?" "He was a good; indeed, I might say noble, man." "Do you know, though, that I met your father about eight days before he died?" "Did you really?" "Didn't you know?" "I am certain he didn't tell me anything about it." "We stood chatting with one another in the street for a quarter of an hour, perhaps. I had just returned then from my first concert tour." "Not a word did he tell me--not a single word!" She spoke almost angrily, as though her father had, at that time, neglected something that might have shaped her future life differently. "But why didn't you come to see us in those days?" she continued. "How did it happen at all that you had already suddenly ceased to visit us some considerable time before my father's death?" "Suddenly?--Gradually!" He looked at her a long time; and now his eyes glided down over her whole body, so that she mechanically drew in her feet under her dress, and pressed her arms against her body, as though to defend herself. "Well, how did it happen that you came to get married?" She related the whole story. Emil listened to her, apparently with attention, but as she spoke on and remained seated, he rose to his feet and gazed out through the window.... When she had finished with a remark about the good-nature of her relations, he said: "Don't you think that we ought to look at a few pictures now that we are here in the Museum?" They walked slowly through the galleries, stopping here and there before a picture. "Lovely! Exquisite!" commented Bertha many a time, but Emil only nodded.