They were interrupted by the entrance of Veit Gronau. He still limped, but otherwise seemed quite well, as he deposited a large package on the table.
"What have you there?" asked Gersdorf.
"Genuine Turkish tobacco," Gronau replied; "and Herr Waltenberg sends his regards and he will come over this afternoon with the ladies from Wolkenstein, who wish to see the holiday dance. Said brought the message and this tobacco, which I asked Herr Waltenberg to send in pity for the doctor, who smokes wretched stuff, begging his pardon. Let me fill the pipes; I understand that business."
"That's true," said Benno, laughing. "You and Herr Waltenberg would smoke up my entire income in a year. I cannot afford to be fastidious."
Veit, who was entirely at home here, hobbled to a little cupboard, whence he took three pipes, which he proceeded to prepare, and the three men were soon filling the room with clouds of fragrant smoke.
Suddenly the door opened, and a most unexpected apparition appeared upon the threshold, in the person of a young lady in a very elegant travelling-dress, a veil wound about her hat, and a handsome travelling-bag in her hand. She was about to enter hastily, but paused as if petrified by the scene which was presented to her gaze. Gronau in all his length of limb lay stretched out on the sofa; the doctor, in his shirt-sleeves, was comfortably established in his arm-chair; Gersdorf sat near him astride of a chair, while the room was filled with a thick but unfortunately transparent cloud of blue tobacco-smoke.
"Herr Doctor," the voice of the old housekeeper was heard to say from the corridor behind the stranger, "a young lady has arrived, and wants----"
"I want my husband," the young lady interposed, in a resolute tone, advancing into the room, where she created a sensation indeed.
Gronau sprang up from the sofa, uttering a cry of pain as he did so, for his ankle resented the sudden motion; Benno started up in dismay and began looking for his coat, which it seemed impossible to find; and Gersdorf emerged from the cloud of smoke, exclaiming, in a tone of delighted surprise, "Molly I--is it you?"
"Yes,--it is I!" Frau Gersdorf declared in accents so annihilating that one might have supposed her husband had just been detected in the commission of a crime, and as she spoke she advanced with extreme dignity into the middle of the room, where, unfortunately, the smoke interfered with the solemnity of the occasion, for she began to cough and seemed almost ready to choke.