Anna slowly put down her cup, nodded and smiled in silence. The two old people began to get up when George came in.
"Please, don't trouble, please don't," said George.
Then there was a noise from the wall at the side of the room. Josef, the son of the house, got up from the sofa on which he had been lying. "Charmed to see you, Herr Baron," he said in a very deep voice, and adjusted the turned-up collar of his yellow-check rather shabby lounge jacket.
"And how have you been all this time, Herr Baron?" inquired the old man. He remained standing a gaunt and somewhat bowed figure, and refused to resume his seat until George had sat down. Josef pushed a chair between his father and sister, Anna held out her hand to the visitor.
"We haven't seen one another for a long time," she said, and drank some of her coffee.
"You've been going through a sad time," remarked Frau Rosner sympathetically.
"Yes," added Herr Rosner. "We were extremely sorry to read of your great loss—and so far as we knew your father always enjoyed the best of health."
He spoke very slowly all the time, as if he had still something more to say, stroking his head several times with his left hand, and nodded while he listened to the answer.
"Yes, it came very unexpectedly," said George gently, and looked at the faded dark-red carpet at his feet.
"A sudden death then, so to speak," remarked Herr Rosner and there was a general silence.