It seemed as though it had waited behind the mountains and were now coming out to say goodbye. That infinitely distant village by the mountain-slope suddenly lay quite close in all its whiteness. The boat beached. Therese got up. She was shrouded in the night and looked strikingly tall. George sprang out of the boat and helped her to disembark. He felt her cool fingers, which did not tremble, in his hand, but moved softly as though on purpose, and caught the breath from her lips quite close. Demeter got out after her, then came Anna, tired and awkward. The boatman thanked them for their generous tip and both couples started to walk homewards. The Prince was sitting on a seat in a long dark cloak in the avenue along the bank. He was smoking a cigar, seemed to be looking out on to the nocturnal lake and turned away his head with the obvious intention of avoiding being saluted. "A man like that could tell a tale," said Therese to George, with whom she had fallen further and further behind, while Demeter and Anna went on in front of them. "So you are going back to Vienna as soon as all that?" asked George. "A fortnight. Do you think that so soon? At any rate you will be home before us, won't you?" "Yes, we shall leave in a few days. We can't put it off any longer. Besides, we shall have to break the journey a few times. Anna doesn't stand travelling well." "Do you know yet that I found the villa for Anna just before I left?" said Therese. "Really, you? Did you go looking, too?" "Yes, I went into the country a few times with my mother. It is a small fairly old house in Salmansdorf with a beautiful garden, which leads straight out to the fields and forest, and the bit of ground in front of the house is quite overgrown.... Anna will tell you more about it. I believe it is the last house in the place. Then there comes an inn, but a fair distance away from it." "I must have overlooked that house on my house-hunting expeditions in the spring." "Clearly, or you would have taken it. There is a little clay figure standing on a lawn near the garden hedge." "Can't remember. But do you know, Therese, it is really nice of you to have taken all this trouble for us, as well as your mother. More than nice." He thought of adding "when one takes your strenuous life into consideration," but suppressed it. "Why are you surprised?" asked Therese. "I am very fond of Anna." "Do you know what I once heard some one say about you?" replied George after a short pause. "Well, what?" "That you would either finish up on the scaffold or as a princess." "That's a phrase of Doctor Berthold Stauber. He once told it me himself, you know. He is very proud of it, but it is sheer nonsense." "The betting at present is certainly more on the princess." "Who says so? The princess dream will soon be over!" "Dream?" "Yes, I am just beginning to wake up. It is rather like the morning air streaming into a bedroom." "And then I suppose the other dream will begin?"