"No," she replied, "I did not have a good time."

"I'm sorry. What was wrong?"

"You were not there--you were somewhere else, where your heart is more
than with me--you were, no doubt at Osterhausgade." She hardened her
tone as she proceeded.

"Oh, I'm not there all the time," he laughed.

"You think more of the people you meet there than you do of me, at any
rate."

"What makes you think so?"

"You, and your actions. O, Henrik, could you but hear the talk--I hear
it, and people look so strangely at me, and pity me ... I can't stand
it!" She arose as if to escape him, walked across the room, then sat
down by the center table. He closed the window blind, then lighted the
gas, and seated himself opposite her by the table. There was a pause
which she at last broke by saying:

"I hear that you are actually going to join those horrid people--is that
true?"

There was another long silence as they looked at each other across the
table.

"Yes," he said.