"How long it seems since I heard your old expressions!" he said, affectionate tenderness bringing a mist before his dear eyes. "Now all I want is to hear you call me 'little girl,' and then I shall feel old times have really come back again." "I will call you so if you like," Leo replied. "But kindly answer my question." "Yes. At first my attacks of heart exhaustion were much less frequent; and then, when they were bad, you know, there was my--my wife--although----" He stopped short. Leo Sellenthin looked at the floor and frowned; his full sensuous lips closed tightly. He nodded two or three times, and muttered-- "Yes, of course. Your wife--your wife." The landlord brought in the wine. They drank to each other, and clinked glasses, and at the bell-like sound their eyes met. Ulrich stretched his lean freckled hand across the table to his friend in silence, and Leo grasped it with hearty fervour. "We drink to each other, old boy!" he exclaimed. Ulrich looked as if he wished to add something, but suppressed it, and then repeated, "To each other." "And that all may be the same as ever between us?" "And that all may be the same as ever." Leo threw his glass behind him against the wall, and it smashed. Ulrich did the same. Then, when fresh glasses were brought, Leo in two draughts emptied the bottle. "You merely sip," he said half apologetically. But in his case it would seem that it was not thirst alone which drove him to drink. He jumped up restlessly, sat down and jumped up again, to pace the room with energetic strides. He acted like one who gathers himself together courageously to meet an emergency. Ulrich's eyes followed him, and a smile of comprehension dawned on his face. "By-the-by, Leo," he began, giving his embarrassed friend a lead. "Did you ever congratulate me on my marriage in your letters? I can't remember whether you did or not." "No, I didn't," Leo answered gruffly. "Was that polite?" "No, but there is no necessity for me to be polite to you?" "Don't you approve of my marriage?" "Approve! Good God--don't you see that nothing is to be gained by asking me two years after the marriage has taken place whether I approve of it? My approval or disapproval doesn't matter, but what does matter"--he came nearer and laid both hands on his friend's shoulder, staring into his eyes anxiously and searchingly--"Uli, are you happy?" Ulrich laughed. It was a laugh of great irony at his own expense that escaped the narrow chest, from which he breathed with such difficulty, and a less sharp ear than Leo's would not have detected in it an undertone of weariness or hesitation. "Why this sudden seriousness?" he asked. "You know that so long as I sit on the Liberal bench, thresh my own straw, and can prove that man was first created a baron, my happiness is assured."