The door soon opened with an abrupt jerk and Albert, in a long _Schlafrock_ (lounging robe) appeared in the doorway. His hair dishevelled, a look of unendurable annoyance on his face, his eyes contracted and intense, he clenched his fists and almost shouted—“Can’t you tell that fool to stop ringing? I can hear every bell in the neighborhood when that imbecile makes his rounds. I was in the midst of a sentence and, bah!—that fool comes along with his clamor and I forget what I was going to say—my whole drift of thought is lost—just when my writing was coming along so easily he comes along and kills my morning’s work—that idiot!” “I told him a number of times not to ring so loud,” Marguerite struck in. “You told him! You don’t think he is doing it to spite me! That postman and the parrot are a pair!” “The parrot! He never opened his month. He was as quiet as a mouse all morning. You blame him for everything.—” Marguerite’s voice was becoming lachrymose. “You hate him because I love him so. Poor dear!” She nestled close to the parrot’s cage. “It is about time that both you and I go—Albert loves neither of us any longer——” Marguerite’s chin began to quiver, the dimples in her cheeks appeared and disappeared, and presently the deluge. She dropped into a chair and the tears soon flowed through her fingers, with which she covered her eyes. He rushed up to her with a gesture of helplessness. “What are you crying about? It’s I who ought to cry—a fine morning’s work gone because that stupid postman rings the doorbell as if he were a Prussian officer. Am I blaming you?” “If—you—loved—me—you—wouldn’t—talk—that—way—” Her words came between sobs. He strode across the room and waved his arms in despair. He gnashed his teeth but said nothing. “You see, you wouldn’t even deny it—you know you don’t love me any longer. I know, I know, yesterday at the_ Café des Ambassadeurs_ with those funny Germans of yours you sat at the table and talked of nothing but the Princess Pompani. You think because I don’t understand German you can talk of your other loves with impunity—but I understand what _Prinzessin_ means—every minute it was _Prinzessin_ this and _Prinzessin_ that—” She lapsed into convulsive sobbing. Suddenly he burst out laughing. “Yes, you laugh because you have no heart and because you make me suffer——” The next moment he walked up to her, gently passed his hand over her hair and tried to embrace her but she pushed him away—— “Don’t touch me—I know when you touch me you are thinking you are passing your hands over the Princess—” Albert was still laughing softly and trying to remove her hands from her face. “Don’t you come near me—don’t——” He had succeeded in pulling her hands away from her face and in giving her a grazing kiss on her lips.