"I shall be delighted. But I should like not to be too late … even in an hotel I should like not to be too late…."
"Of course not. We will just have supper, and you can be in bed long before ten o'clock."
They paced slowly down the grand staircase.
"So, if you are agreeable," said Emil, "we will meet at seven o'clock."
She was on the point of replying: "So late as that?"—but, remembering her resolution not to compromise herself, she refrained and answered instead:
"Very well, at seven."
"Seven o'clock at … where?… Out of doors, shall we say? In that case we could go wherever we fancied, life would lie before us, so to speak … yes."
He seemed to her just then remarkably absent-minded. They went through the entrance hall, and at the exit they stopped for a moment.
"At seven o'clock, then—by the Elizabeth Bridge."
"Very well; seven o'clock at the Elizabeth Bridge."