Frau von Gropphusen rode quietly home. The servant was waiting at the door. He took the machine from her, asking if she would take tea. "No," she answered. "I have had it. You can clear the things away." She threw herself on the couch in her room just as she was, in her bicycling costume. She drew up the rug and wrapped herself in it. And Hannah Gropphusen lay thus till far into the night, staring with wide-open eyes into the darkness of the room. A few days later Marie Falkenhein came through the garden gate to Kläre Güntz's house. "Kläre," she said, "I am going into the town to inquire after Frau von Stuckardt. Would you like me to call in at the chemist's and tell him he is to send you the sugar-of-milk for the baby?" Frau Kläre took stock of the young girl, and shook her finger at her laughingly. "Mariechen! Mariechen!" she said. "I never would have believed you could become such an accomplished hypocrite, my child." Marie turned crimson. "Yes, yes," continued Kläre. "Because you have heard me call vanity a vice, you were ashamed to show off your new dress and hat to me. But you hadn't quite the heart to pass by your old friend's house. Isn't that the way of it?" The young girl nodded, her face scarlet. Kläre stroked her cheek caressingly, and went on: "You silly little goose! But really, you know, when one's as pretty as you are, a little vanity is excusable. And now tell me, where in the world did you get these things?" "Oh, Kläre," replied the girl, "not here, of course. Frau von Gropphusen went with me and helped me to choose them. I can tell you, Kläre, she does understand such things." The young woman stood in front of her friend and looked her over from head to foot. It would have been impossible to find any costume which lent itself more happily to Marie's dainty appearance than this of some light-grey soft silken material, trimmed with white, and with a little hat to match, the shape of which softly emphasised the delicate beauty of the young face. Kläre gave the girl a hearty kiss, and said: "You are as pretty as a picture, little one. Quite lovely. Well, and what did the stern father say to all this?" Marie was quite flushed with pride. "At first he said, 'By Jove!'" she answered. "Then I made him give me a kiss; and next he got quite anxious and wanted to know whether I hadn't been running into debt. I had to swear to him that the whole turn-out didn't cost me more than what he had given me for it." "And is that the truth, dear child?" "Well, I had just to add four marks from my pocket-money." Kläre shook her head smilingly. "Dear, dear! So young and already so depraved! Hypocrisy and perjury! Well, at least it is worth it."