"Expected? Frau Ehrenberg was certainly kind enough to invite me, but I never accepted. Did you stay there a fairly long time, Herr Bermann?"
"A fairly long time? No. I was up there a few times, but only for an hour or so."
"I thought you stayed there."
"Not a bit of it. I stayed down at the hotel. I only occasionally went up to Auhof. There was too much noise and bustle there for me.... The house was positively packed with visitors. And I can't stand most of the people who go there."
An open fiacre in which a gentleman and lady were sitting passed by.
"Why, that was Oskar Ehrenberg," said Heinrich.
"And the lady?" queried George, looking towards something bright that gleamed through the darkness.
"Don't know her."
They turned their steps through a dark side-avenue. The conversation stuck again. Finally Heinrich began: "Fräulein Else sang a few of your songs to me at Auhof. I'd heard some of them already too, sung by the Bellini, I think."
"Yes, Bellini sang them last winter at a concert."