"And is your friend a statesman too?"
"For heaven's sake ..."
"And Serge?"
"That is a Russian given name, belonging to a Russian saint and many Russian crown princes."
"Who, however, do not find it necessary to be saints if I am right?... And Gaston?"
"Is a French name."
"Yes, I remember that. Once when I was a little young thing, before I was confirmed, I saw a piece: 'The Man with the Iron Mask.' And the man with the mask was called Gaston. And I cried dreadfully."
"And now you will laugh if I tell you that I am Gaston."
"No, I will not laugh. You have a mask too."
Botho was about to contradict this, both in earnest and in jest, but Frau Dörr, who just then came in, broke off the conversation, by excusing herself for having kept them waiting so long. But an order had come in and she had been obliged to make a burial wreath in a hurry.