'That's because you have eaten so many cakes and sardines,' I said soothingly.
'Are you never serious?'
'But invariably.'
'Frankly, I find nothing more tiring than talking to a person who is persistently playful.'
'That's only those three vanilla ices,' I assured her encouragingly.
'You here, too, Frau Nieberlein?' exclaimed Ambrose, coming in. 'Oh good. You will come with us, won't you? It's a beautiful walk—shade the whole way. And I have just got that work of the Professor's about the Phrygians, and want to talk about it frightfully badly. I've been reading it all night. It's the most marvellous book. No wonder it revolutionised European thought. Absolutely epoch-making.' He bought his biscuits as one in a dream, so greatly did he glow with rapture.
'Come on Charlotte,' I said; 'a walk will do us both good. I'll send word to August to meet us at Stubbenkammer.'
But Charlotte would not come on. She would sit there quietly, she said; bathe perhaps, later, and then drive to Stubbenkammer.
'I tell you what, Frau Nieberlein,' cried Ambrose from the counter, 'I never envied a woman before, but I must say I envy you. What a marvellously glorious fate to be the wife of such an extraordinary thinker!'
'Very well then,' I said quickly, not knowing what Charlotte's reply might be, 'you'll come on with August and meet us there. Auf Wiedersehen, Lottchen.' And I hurried Ambrose and his biscuits out.