When she entered the drawing-room, she no longer found him reclining on the arm-chair. To her terror she saw he was standing in front of the secrétaire--absorbed in contemplation of Richard's picture. "Oh, if only I had taken it away before!" she thought Now it was too late. He let a confused, astonished look glide over the Venus robe, and fetching a deep breath, grasped both her hands. "Why did you make yourself so beautiful for me?" "Just to give you a little feeling of being at home here," she said, dropping her eyes. "Nothing more. But come. Let's go to supper. We haven't had anything to eat all evening." "Eat and drink now? Oh, very well--I'll just sit at table, if you want." "Then I don't care for anything either," she cried, clinging to him, and drawing her arm so tight about his neck that the pressure of his body fairly robbed her of her breath. Peter, the little ape, who had slept in his corner the whole time, awoke and whimpered jealously, and stretched his grey arms yearningly between the bars of his cage, as if wishing to be the third party in the alliance. Dr. Rennschmidt heard the strange sound and started. Lilly smiled and calmed him. "Later I'll introduce you to all my little ones. My friends must be yours, too." He drew himself up to his full height. "How is that possible? As what would you introduce me?" Lilly hastily parried. "Oh, I didn't mean it that way. I merely meant--" She was at a loss what explanation to offer. Then she felt his trembling fingers clutch her upper arm. His eyes burned their way into hers. "Who are you?" he asked. Her brain reeled. "Who am I? I am a woman--who loves you--who has never loved anyone before." He gratefully caressed her shoulders. "Understand me," he said. "I am not trying to force myself into your confidence. But if the relation between two human beings is what ours has been for the past hour, they want to mean everything in the world to each other. I have never met a woman like you. I am utterly helpless. The few little experiences I have had don't count. In Rome a baker's daughter loved me. She ran away with a marquis. When I was a student I went through a few similar episodes. I never mingled much in society. And now all of a sudden I have you in my arms--the noblest, the most glorious thing I've ever beheld. A creature not of this world. I keep looking at you as you stand there in your blue peplum--why, it's as if an old marble statue by Lysippus or Praxiteles had come to life. And that is to be mine? The mere desiring of it is naked tragedy. We are both making straight for a precipice, and we don't even resist." "Why resist?" she cried, in bliss, throwing her head back, as if to toss from her brow streaming bacchantic locks. "We love each other. Nothing else concerns us." He sank into the chair next to her, and pressed his face into both hands, his body heaving as with sobs.