with the hunch-backed poet. Many people watched the strange pair,
but there was no laughing. Kohn's hump pressed hard and heedlessly,
like the edge of a table, against the delicate others. It seemed as
though he had the constant desire to press his hump against a dancer.
He never failed to say, in a falsetto voice, "pardon," with
unashamed courtesy, when a crazy woman cried out or someone
blissfully snarled "damn." Lisel Liblichlein held on to the poet
with one hand holding the hump like a handle, and with the other had
she pressed Kohn's square head gently to her breast. In this way
they danced like possessed people for many hours.

Kohn's hump became steadily more painful for the other dancers. They
tried to express outrage. The people in charge of the party informed
Kohn that he was requested to refrain from dancing. With this kind
of hump one should not dance. Kohn did not resist. Lisel
Liblichlein watched as his face became grey.

She led him to a hidden recess. There she said to him: "From now on
I shall tutoyer you." Kuno Kohn did not answer, but he accepted her
sympathetic soul like a gift in his water-blue troubadour's eyes.
Trembling, she said that she suddenly loved him so much that it was
incomprehensible.., she would never again let his arm go... she had
not know that one could be so wildly happy... Kuno Kohn invited her
to visit him the next evening. She accepted gladly.

Kuno Kohn and Lisel Liblichlein were the first to leave the giddy
celebration. They moved through the heaven-bright moonlit streets,
whispering. The poet in love cast fantastic shadows with giant humps
on the pavement.