But they seemed to take her greeting as mockery or blame, and turned back to their work with a grimace well-nigh scornful.

In the packing room, where women and children were employed exclusively, Lilly's appearance produced a happier impression. The girls laughed and whispered, and nudged one another with their elbows.

The only one who paid no attention to her was a pregnant woman, who seemed to find it difficult to keep from sinking to the floor. She held her drooping lips tightly compressed and a vivid red spotted her cheeks.

Nevertheless her arms moved in feverish haste wrapping one paper wisp after the other about the limbs of the figure standing on the table in front of her, and inclining now to the right, now to the left under her manipulations.

Lilly led Mr. Dehnicke aside and asked:

"May I give her something?"

"She's being provided for," he replied, unpleasantly affected, it seemed. He quickly opened another door.

"This leads to the store room, where the pieces are kept until sold, with the exception, of course, of those which are made to order."

Lilly looked down a dimly lighted corridor, from which the cold air blew upon her. On the shelves and stands stood endless rows of phantom beings, shapeless in their grey paper envelopes.

"Oh, how queer," said Lilly, shivering a little, and preparing to walk along the narrow pa.s.sageway. The very same instant, however, she noticed her friend start as in fright, and cast a helpless look about him. Then he stepped in front of her and blocked the way.

"What's the matter?" asked Lilly, surprised.

He turned colour and said:

"We had better not go in there. We'll go somewhere else. Besides, there's nothing to look at there, not a thing. You yourself see there isn't."

He planted himself squarely in front of her, so that she could not possibly look down the long line of shelves.

This, of course, merely heightened her curiosity.

"But I would like to," she said, and a.s.sumed the over-bearing, haughty expression with which she was wont to get her way with him.

"No, no," he burst out hastily. "It's a business secret. I mayn't betray it to a soul. Even the employes are not allowed to come here.

Really I can't permit it."

"Then you shouldn't have brought me here at all," said Lilly, feeling insulted; and she turned back.

He poured forth excuses, grew hoa.r.s.e with excitement, and coughed and choked. Then he led her back over the resplendent mosaic of the yard to the gateway with its imitation marble columns, through which a chilly draught was blowing.

"You will catch a cold," said Lilly to hasten her departure.

His face lighted up with a brilliant idea.

"Besides, you know," he said, "the store room wasn't heated."

"You should have thought of that sooner," rejoined Lilly, holding out her hand with a smile of partial reconciliation. She was really sorry for him in his helpless solicitude.

Nevertheless she continued to feel hurt. And a bit disturbed. The day she had been looking forward to so happily for months had ended in a discord.

And no matter how much she pressed him later, Mr. Dehnicke refused to tell her what mystery lay concealed in his store room.

CHAPTER VII

Lilly began to ail. She suffered from headaches, heart-burn, la.s.situde, insomnia and occasional attacks of vertigo.

The physician, called in at Mr. Dehnicke's insistence, was one of those extremely busy men who make the rounds of numberless houses a day. First he took a good look at the apartment--a setting he seemed to know--then, upon a cursory examination, prescribed social distractions, walks, and iron, much iron.

Social distractions had to be dispensed with; there was no opportunity for them. Taking walks was not so easy either. Lilly did not care to stroll about alone, and Mr. Dehnicke, the only person to accompany her, preferred not to be seen on the street with her too frequently. In order, he said, not to compromise her, though in all likelihood the truth was, he feared becoming conspicuous by appearing in public with that exotic, flowerlike beauty.

For no matter what happened, no matter that trouble, want and all sorts of humiliations swept over her, no matter that boredom and displeasure with herself crushed her spirits, Lilly's appearance never lost thereby.

On the contrary, the delicate milky whiteness of her cheeks, which before had been a golden brown, lent her a new, soft charm. The great, narrow, long-lashed eyes with the heavily drooping lids--those improbable Lilly eyes--now had a weary, languishing brilliance, as if they veiled all the painful riddles of the universe. Moreover, the last year had given back to her the slim, regal figure of her maiden days and taken away the womanly peacefulness it had acquired at Lischnitz. No wonder that many a head turned after her and many an appreciative, envious glance was sent askance at her companion, who was considerably shorter than she.

Mr. Dehnicke was aware of all this, and being a staid, respectable business man, and not wishing to be the object of gossip, he preferred to stay indoors with her.

About the middle of February she received an invitation by mail from Mr.

Kellermann, whom she had not seen for several months.

GREAT CARNIVAL KELLERMANN STUDIO

Magic Lantern Show, Flirtation, Opportunity for Crimes Pa.s.sionels, Cream Kisses, and other Attractions

That seemed like distraction enough, and Mr. Dehnicke, who, it happened, had also been invited, was so energetic in his persuasions that he finally conquered her timidity and induced her to go.

But when the day for the carnival came Lilly was seized by a great dread of it, and at the last moment felt like withdrawing from her engagement.

She saw herself running the gauntlet of a gaping crowd of sardonic sneerers, who whispered the story of her rise and fall behind her back.

She saw herself neglected and avoided, the object of derisive side glances. She pa.s.sed through all the tortures of the decla.s.sees, who must drag through life with the mark of the sinner caught in the act branded on their brows.

She chose the most beautiful of her Dresden dresses, which in the two years had grown to be the very height of fashion. It was a white Empire gown embroidered with gold vines. She arranged a narrow bracelet in her hair like a diadem, and loosely laid over her head an oriental veil shot with threads of gold. In case of need it would serve to conceal the bareness of her bosom. When she had completed her toilet, she seemed to herself so repulsive and conspicuous that this alone was sufficient ground for not showing herself.

She did not venture to cherish a faint hope until her friend came to fetch her. He saw her, and held on to the door k.n.o.b, uttering a slight cry of astonishment.

"Am I all right?" she asked with a diffident laugh, which entreated encouragement.

Instead of replying he ran up and down the room breathing heavily and choking over inarticulate words--a mute language which Lilly immediately understood.

While sitting beside him in the coupe, she succ.u.mbed to another attack of dread.

"You will stay right next to me, won't you?" she implored. "You won't leave me, and you won't let a stranger speak to me, will you?"

He promised all she wanted.

Four flights up--a way she well knew.

The landing outside Mr. Kellermann's door was filled with clothes-racks, on which awe-inspiring furs and humiliating lace mantles hung.