XXIII


He slept for some hours without waking. Then he began to dream that
he was once more fighting a duel, that the antagonist standing facing
him was Herr Klueber, and on a fir-tree was sitting a parrot, and this
parrot was Pantaleone, and he kept tapping with his beak: one, one,
one!

'One ... one ... one!' he heard the tapping too distinctly; he opened
his eyes, raised his head ... some one was knocking at his door.

'Come in!' called Sanin.

The waiter came in and answered that a lady very particularly wished
to see him.

'Gemma!' flashed into his head ... but the lady turned out to be her
mother, Frau Lenore.

Directly she came in, she dropped at once into a chair and began to
cry.

'What is the matter, my dear, good Madame Roselli?' began Sanin,
sitting beside her and softly touching her hand. 'What has happened?
calm yourself, I entreat you.'

'Ah, Herr Dimitri, I am very ... very miserable!'