She related the whole story. Emil listened to her, apparently with attention, but as she spoke on and remained seated, he rose to his feet and gazed out through the window…. When she had finished with a remark about the good-nature of her relations, he said:
"Don't you think that we ought to look at a few pictures now that we are here in the Museum?"
They walked slowly through the galleries, stopping here and there before a picture.
"Lovely! Exquisite!" commented Bertha many a time, but Emil only nodded.
It seemed to Bertha that he had quite forgotten that he was with her. She felt slightly jealous at the interest which the paintings roused in him. Suddenly they found themselves before one of the pictures which she knew from Herr Rupius' portfolio. Emil wanted to pass on, but she stopped and greeted it, as she might an old acquaintance.
"Exquisite!" she exclaimed. "Emil, isn't it beautiful? On the whole, I greatly admire Falckenborg's pictures."
He looked at her, somewhat surprised.
She became embarrassed, and tried to go on talking.
"Because such an immense quantity—because the whole world—"
She felt that this was dishonest, even that she was robbing some one who could not defend himself; and accordingly she added, repentantly, as it were: