"How long it seems since I heard your old expressions!" he said, affectionate tenderness bringing a mist before his dear eyes. "Now all I want is to hear you call me 'little girl,' and then I shall feel old times have really come back again."
"I will call you so if you like," Leo replied. "But kindly answer my question."
"Yes. At first my attacks of heart exhaustion were much less frequent; and then, when they were bad, you know, there was my--my wife--although----" He stopped short.
Leo Sellenthin looked at the floor and frowned; his full sensuous lips closed tightly. He nodded two or three times, and muttered--
"Yes, of course. Your wife--your wife."
The landlord brought in the wine. They drank to each other, and clinked glasses, and at the bell-like sound their eyes met. Ulrich stretched his lean freckled hand across the table to his friend in silence, and Leo grasped it with hearty fervour.
"We drink to each other, old boy!" he exclaimed.
Ulrich looked as if he wished to add something, but suppressed it, and then repeated, "To each other."
"And that all may be the same as ever between us?"
"And that all may be the same as ever."