Else sat at the little table in the corner with Demeter and made him tell her about the _Isle of Wight_. "You were there with your friend?" she inquired, "weren't you, Prince Karl Friedrich?" "My friend the Prince?... that's not quite right, Fräulein Else. The Prince has no friends, nor have I. We're neither of us the type to have friends." "He must be an interesting man according to all one hears." "Interesting--I don't know about that. At any rate he's thought over a lot of things which people in his position are not usually accustomed to bother their heads about very much. Perhaps he'd have managed to do all kinds of things too, if he'd been left to himself. Well, who knows, it was perhaps better for him that they kept a tight hold on him, for him and for the country too in the long run. One man alone can do nothing--never in this life. That's why it's best to let matters slide and get out of things, as he did." Else looked at him somewhat coldly. "You're so philosophical to-day, what is it? It seems to me that Willy Eissler has spoilt you." "Willy spoilt me?" "Yes, you know you shouldn't associate with such clever people." "Why not?" "You should simply be young, shine, live, and then when there's nothing more to do, do whatever you like ... but without bothering about yourself and the world." "You should have told me that before, Fräulein Else; once a man's started getting clever...." Else shook her head. "But perhaps in your case it might have been avoided," she said quite seriously. And then they both had to laugh. The chandelier was lighted up. George Wergenthin and Heinrich Bermann had come in. Invited by a smile George sat down by Else's side. "I knew that you would come," she said disingenuously but warmly as she pressed his hand; she was more glad than she thought she would have been that he should sit opposite to her after so long an interval, that she could see again his proud gracious face and hear again his somewhat gentle yet warm voice. Frau Wyner appeared, a little woman with a high colour, jolly and awkward. Her daughter Sissy was with her. The groups got broken up in the "general post" of mutual greetings. "Well, have you composed that song for me yet?" Sissy asked George with laughing eyes and laughing lips, as she played with one of her gloves and moved about like a snake in her dark-green shimmering dress. "A song?" asked George. He really didn't remember. "Or waltz or something. But you promised me to dedicate something to me." While she spoke her looks were wandering round. They glowed into the eyes of Willy, passed caressingly by Demeter and addressed a sphinx-like question to Heinrich Bermann. It seemed as though will-o'-the-wisps were dancing through the drawing-room. Frau Wyner suddenly came up to her daughter. She flushed deeply. "Sissy is really so silly.... What are you thinking of, Sissy? Baron George has had more important things to do this year than to compose things for you."