"I have plenty of time--as much as you like. But, of course, it must not be too late." "Is your cousin so strict then?" "But--" she said, "this time, as a matter of fact, I'm not staying with her, you see." He looked at her in astonishment. She grew red. "Usually I do stay with her.... I mean, sometimes.... She has such a large family, you know." "So you are staying at an hotel," he said, rather impatiently. "Well, there, of course, you are accountable to no one, and we can spend the evening together quite comfortably." "I shall be delighted. But I should like not to be too late ... even in an hotel I should like not to be too late...." "Of course not. We will just have supper, and you can be in bed long before ten o'clock." They paced slowly down the grand staircase. "So, if you are agreeable," said Emil, "we will meet at seven o'clock." She was on the point of replying: "So late as that?"--but, remembering her resolution not to compromise herself, she refrained and answered instead: "Very well, at seven." "Seven o'clock at ... where?... Out of doors, shall we say? In that case we could go wherever we fancied, life would lie before us, so to speak ... yes." He seemed to her just then remarkably absent-minded. They went through the entrance hall, and at the exit they stopped for a moment. "At seven o'clock, then--by the Elizabeth Bridge." "Very well; seven o'clock at the Elizabeth Bridge." Before them lay the square, with the Maria Theresa memorial, in the brilliant glare of the noonday sun. It was a warm day, but a very high wind had arisen. It seemed to Bertha that Emil was looking at her with a scrutinising glance. At the same time, he appeared to her cold and strange, a very different man from what he had been when standing before the pictures in the Museum. "Now we will say good-bye for the present," he said, after a time. It made her feel somewhat unhappy to think that he was going to leave her. "Won't you ... or can't I come with you a little way?" she said. "Well, no," he answered. "Besides, it is blowing such a gale. There's not much enjoyment to be had in walking side by side and having to hold your hat all the time, for fear it should blow away. Generally, it is difficult to converse if you are walking with a person in the street, and then, too, I have to be in such a hurry.... But perhaps I can see you to a carriage?" "No, no, I shall walk." "Yes, you can do that. Well, good-bye till we meet again this evening." He stretched out his hand to her, and walked quickly away across the square. She gazed after him for a long time. He had taken off his hat and held it in his hand, and the wind was ruffling his hair. He went across the Ring, then through the Town Gate, and disappeared from Bertha's view.