everything he supposed conducive to the mirthfulness of the company;
he begged them to sit down in the shade of a spreading oak-tree, and
taking out of a side pocket a small booklet entitled, '_Knallerbsen;
oder du sollst und wirst lachen!_' (Squibs; or you must and shall
laugh!) began reading the funny anecdotes of which the little book was
full. He read them twelve specimens; he aroused very little mirth,
however; only Sanin smiled, from politeness, and he himself, Herr
Klueber, after each anecdote, gave vent to a brief, business-like, but
still condescending laugh. At twelve o'clock the whole party returned
to Soden to the best tavern there.

They had to make arrangements about dinner. Herr Klueber proposed
that the dinner should be served in a summer-house closed in on all
sides--'_im Gartensalon_'; but at this point Gemma rebelled and
declared that she would have dinner in the open air, in the garden, at
one of the little tables set before the tavern; that she was tired of
being all the while with the same faces, and she wanted to see fresh
ones. At some of the little tables, groups of visitors were already
sitting.

While Herr Klueber, yielding condescendingly to 'the caprice of his
betrothed,' went off to interview the head waiter, Gemma stood
immovable, biting her lips and looking on the ground; she was
conscious that Sanin was persistently and, as it were, inquiringly
looking at her--it seemed to enrage her. At last Herr Klueber returned,
announced that dinner would be ready in half an hour, and proposed
their employing the interval in a game of skittles, adding that this
was very good for the appetite, he, he, he! Skittles he played in
masterly fashion; as he threw the ball, he put himself into amazingly
heroic postures, with artistic play of the muscles, with artistic