Several ladies had carefully brought them and they could scarcely be
put out. Other ladies even thought it incumbent upon them to ask after
the wives of the gentlemen present and to turn up their noses when it
appeared that these were conspicuous by their absence. It was upon
this occasion, however, that some beneficent chance assigned to
Niebeldingk a sighing blonde who remained at his side all evening.

Her name was Meta, she belonged to one of the "best families" of
Posen, she lived in Berlin with her mother who kept a boarding house
for ladies of the theatre. She herself nursed the ardent desire to
dedicate herself to art, for "the ideal" had always been the guiding
star of her existence.

At the beginning of supper she expressed herself with a fine
indignation concerning the ladies present into whose midst--she
assured him eagerly--she had fallen through sheer accident. Later she
thawed out, assumed a friendly companionableness to these despised
individuals and, in order to raise Niebeldingk's delight to the
highest point, admitted with maidenly frankness the indescribable and
mysterious attraction toward him which she had felt at the
first glance.

Of course, her principles were impregnable. He mustn't doubt that. She
would rather seek a moist death in the waves than.... and so forth.
Although she made this solemn proclamation over the dessert, the
consequence of it all was an intimate visit to Niebeldingk's dwelling
which came to a bitter sweet end at three o'clock in the morning with
gentle tears concerning the wickedness of men in general and of
himself in particular....