"Indeed," Frau Rupius put in; "why don't you do so? Moreover, you must certainly have some acquaintances there, too. Come with me one day—to-morrow, for example. Yes, to-morrow."
Rupius gazed straight before him while his wife said this, as though he did not dare to look at her.
"You are really very kind, Frau Rupius," said Bertha, feeling as though a perfect stream of joy was coursing through her being.
She wondered, too, how it was that all this time the possibility of making such a journey had not once entered her mind, the more so as it could be accomplished with so little trouble. It appeared to her at that moment that such a journey might be a remedy for the strange sense of dissatisfaction under which she had been suffering during the past few days.
"Well, do you agree, Frau Garlan?"
"I don't really know—I daresay I could spare the time, for I have only one lesson to give tomorrow at my sister-in-law's, and she, of course, won't be too exacting; but wouldn't I be putting you to some inconvenience?"
A slight shadow flitted across Frau Rupius' brow.
"Putting me to inconvenience! Whatever are you dreaming of! I shall be very glad to have pleasant company during the few hours of the journey there and back. And in Vienna—oh, we shall be sure to have much to do together in Vienna."
"Your husband," said Bertha, blushing like a girl who is speaking of her first ball, "has told me … has advised me …"
"Surely, he has been raving to you about my dressmaker," said Frau
Rupius, laughing.