He had taken the umbrella out of her hand and held it over her, while she held his arm. "I say, Anna," he said, "I should like to make a suggestion!" He was surprised that he should be looking for a way of leading up to it, and began hesitatingly: "My few days in Vienna are, of course, more or less unsettled and cut up--and now there's this depressed atmosphere at your people's as well.... We are not really managing to see anything of each other: don't you agree?" She nodded without looking at him. "So wouldn't you like to come part of the way with me, Anna, when I go back again?" She looked at him sideways in her arch way and did not answer. He went on speaking. "I can, you see, quite well manage to get an extra day's leave if I wire to the theatre. It would really be awfully nice if we had a few hours all to ourselves." She consented with sincerity but not enthusiasm and made her decision depend on the state of her father's health. She then asked him how he had spent the day. He told her in detail, and also added his programme for to-morrow. "So we two will see each other in the evening," he said. "I'll come to your place if that's convenient, and then we'll arrange further details." "Yes," said Anna, and looked in front of her down the damp brown-grey street. He tried again to persuade her to come to the opera with him, but it was futile. He then inquired about her singing lessons and followed that up by speaking about his own activity, as though he had to convince her that after all he was not having a much better time than she was. And he referred to his letters, in which he had written about everything in full detail. "So far as that's concerned ..." she said suddenly in quite a hard voice.... And when, hurt by her tone, he could not help throwing back his head, she proceeded: "What is there really in letters, however detailed they are?"