Cäcilie seemed to challenge danger with a certain amount of defiance, the tokens of contempt increased at table after table, where she greeted old acquaintances. Not more cheering was the familiar and impudent greeting of gifted Salomon, who, seated with a few friends over a large bowl of negus, pledged a glass to the lady passing by, and invited her to sit down at their table while he recited in a half intoxicated voice--
"With brunettes I now have finished,
And this year am once more fond
Of the eyes whose hue is azure
Of the hair whose colour's blonde."
Cäcilie found it difficult to defend herself from these importunate invitations.
Dr. Kuhl stood beside the stove, and warmed himself with his hands behind him, but nothing of that which befell Cäcilie escaped him. It filled him with extreme dissatisfaction, it was as if his beloved were running the gauntlet, and with such irritating composure. He had caught himself in the act of pulling up his coat sleeves in rage, ready to knock down all who insulted her.
"Dear Paul," said Cäcilie, "I have something to tell you."
"I do not understand," replied Paul, angrily, "how you can court all these people; they are the most worn out coinage which can have no circulation amongst us. Let us sit down here at this table behind the stove, there we shall at least not see these bald heads, which only by an oversight, or by the magic wand of some mischievous Demiurgos, were thrown amongst human beings. Well your communication--"
"It could be foreseen, Olga has engaged herself to Herr von Wegen."