"High finance," he gasped, "is not a part of my daily routine!"
He dug into a wardrobe trunk, brought out a bottle and poured two drinks. Raising his glass high in the air, he toasted:
"To art ... and crime! I hope we don't have to pay too much for either!"
"How are you getting along with Maria?" Willy asked a few days later.
"Just what do you expect to accomplish by throwing the two of us together so much," Walther asked bluntly. "Oh, I enjoy it, mind you—but, really, we're worlds apart. When I go back...."
"With the young everything is possible—even the impossible," Willy answered evasively.
"Well, tell me something more about her. Where does she come from? Has she ever been engaged? Married?"
Willy filtered a cloud of smoke through his nostrils.
"Maria's the only talented offspring ever produced by a rather poor family in Naples. She still supports them—or rather, makes it possible for them to be good Happy Time consumers. As for her talent ... well, it was discovered by her first school teacher—and from then on her education was taken over by the opera monopoly! Engaged? Nothing serious that I know of. Married?" Willy frowned. "I shudder to think of her marriage to one of our mechanical young rabbits!"