the ladies, and by a frivolous American, who cried: "Now for
ALSO SCHRIE ZENOPHOBIA!" Krafft stopped playing, but remained sitting
at the piano, wiping down the keys with his handkerchief.

Schilsky came in, somewhat embarrassed by the lull which had succeeded
the hubbub heard in the passage, but wholly unconcerned at the
lateness of the hour: except in matters of practical advancement, time
did not exist for him. As soon as he appeared, the two ladies in the
front row began to clap their hands; the rest of the company followed
their example, then, in spite of Furst's efforts to prevent it, rose
and crowded round him. Miss Jensen and her friend made themselves
particularly conspicuous. Mrs Lauterischlager had an infatuation for
the young man, of which she made no secret; she laid her hand
caressingly on his coat-sleeve, and put her face as near his as
propriety admitted.

"Disgusting, the way those women go on with him!" said Madeleine. "And
what is worse, he likes it."

Schilsky listened to the babble of compliments with that mixture of
boyish deference and unequivocal superiority, which made him so
attractive to women. He was too good-natured to interrupt them and
free himself, and would have stood as long as they liked, if Furst had
not come to the rescue and led him to the piano. Schilsky laid his
hand affectionately on Krafft's shoulder, and Krafft sprang up in
exaggerated surprise. The audience took its seats again; the thick
manuscript-score was set up on the music-rack, and the three young men
at the piano had a brief disagreement with one another about turning
the leaves: Krafft was bent on doing it, and Schilsky objected, for
Krafft had a way of forgetting what he was at in the middle of a page.