"I live only for my boy," she said, with decision. "I do not allow men to make love to me. I am quite respectable."
He had to laugh it the comically serious way in which she made this confession of virtue. For her part, she felt at once that she ought to have expressed herself differently, and so she laughed, too.
"How long are you going to stay, then, in Vienna?" asked Emil.
"Till to-morrow, or the day after to-morrow."
"So short a time as that? And where are you staying? I should like to know."
"With my cousin," she replied.
Something restrained her from mentioning that she had put up at an hotel. But immediately she was angry with herself for having told such a stupid lie, and she was about to correct herself. Emil, however, broke in quickly:
"Perhaps you will have a little time to spare for me, too? I hope so, at least."
"Oh, yes!"
"So, then, we can arrange something now if you like"—he glanced at the clock—"Ah!"