"I have lost all pleasure in the picture."
This leads to a question which seems even worse than the first, and which I had better leave unmeddled with, if I were prudent.
But I am not prudent, and cannot get it out of my head; and as my head can make nothing of it, I lay it before Doctor Willibrod in a quite casual manner, as if nothing really depended upon the answer:
"Tell me, doctor, why has Fräulein Paula lost all pleasure in her picture?"
"Who says that?" asked the doctor.
"She herself."
"Then ask herself."
"If I wished to do or could do that, I would not need your opinion."
"Why should I have any opinion in the matter?" cries the doctor. "What does it concern me why Paula does not choose to work on the thing any longer? Since nature herself has not thought fit to finish me, I do not care whether I am finished in the picture or not."
I see that I make no progress in this way, so I venture to hint that perhaps Arthur's absence has had an influence upon Paula's feelings in the matter.