Peals of laughter broke out, the mirth became boundless, appropriate anecdotes were told. “And you, Herr Pinkus--where will you transfer your publishing house?” someone asked the stout little publisher with the bowed legs and the unmistakably Jewish features. “I? I stay here! Don’t you know that I’m a genuine Christian?” And when everybody laughed he said, with a serene smile: “All jokes aside, I am an unadulterated _goy_! My grandfather, Amsel Pinkus, was a cloth dealer in Frankfurt am Main, and a good, pious Jew. But when he fell in love with my grandmother, Christine Haberle, a little singer of Stuttgart, he became converted, as she wouldn’t marry him otherwise. Well, my father also married a Christian girl, so that I’m a third-generation Christian; and therefore I won’t be expelled, although I look and act exactly like my grandfather.” “Long live Pinkus, the Christian,” merrily cried the host, and, laughing, all raised their glasses. Just then, like the lash of a whip, a report sounded from the lake. And Villoner, filled with a strange premonition, cried: “Where is Seider?” But people were already bringing up the body of the young poet. He had shot himself, down there beside the lake, so that his sensitive, weary soul would not have to starve in a foreign land. CHAPTER V. GIRLS AMONG THEMSELVES Panic prevailed in Lona’s house, in the Gumpendorferstrasse. Eight young ladies, all superlatively beautiful, had already gathered there, and still the stout housekeeper, Frau Kathi Schoberlechner, had to open the door again and again to let in new arrivals. The drawing-room was permeated with a strong aroma of Houbigant, Ambre, Coty Rouge, and cigarettes; golden, red, chestnut and dusky heads, diamonds and pearls shone and glittered. All were dressed in silks and laces, only Lona wore a fragrant negligée, open in front so that her snow-white bosom almost burst forth; and her stockingless feet were encased in little red mules. Black-haired Yvonne wept as if her heart would break, while red-headed Margit pounded on the table and cried angrily: “We got to protes’! If I ever get hold o’ one o’ them dep’ties, I’ll scratch ’is eyes out for ’im!” “Wotta dirty trick! W’at they expec’ us to do w’en they throw out the Jews?” Yvonne wept more passionately. “An’ jus’ now, w’en Fredi Pollak jus’ ordered a new car for me.” “I’m gettin’ ten million a month from Reizes, w’at I been goin’ with fer two weeks. I’d like to know if them Christian gents’ll be so free with their money?” “Y’know, I got that Zwitterbauch from Mährisch-Ostrau, w’at keeps me altogether, and comes to Vienna on’y for a week outa ev’ry month!” A voluptuous golden-haired Juno crossed her beautiful though rather thick-set legs so that her blue silk garters peeped out, drank a little glass of cointreau, and said in a resonant alto: