Niebeldingk who had waited behind his curtain, half-amused,
half-bored--for in the silent, distinguished street where everyone
knew him a scandal was to be avoided at any cost--Niebeldingk hastened
to make up for his neglect at once.

The dark fell. Here and there the street-lamps flickered through the
purple air of the summer dusk....

The maid who opened the door looked at him with cool astonishment as
though he were half a stranger who had the audacity to pay a call at
this intimate hour.

"That means a scolding," he thought.

But he was mistaken.

Smiling quietly, Alice arose from the couch where she had been sitting
by the light of a shaded lamp and stretched out her hand with all her
old kindliness. The absence of the otherwise inevitable book was the
only change that struck him.

"We haven't seen each other for a long time," he said, making a
wretched attempt at an explanation.

"Is it so long?" she asked frankly.

"Thank you for your gentle punishment." He kissed her hand. Then he
chatted, more or less at random, of disagreeable business matters, of
preparations for a journey, and so forth.