‘It’s none of your business, Herr Rudel. I wouldn’t try to seduce you, at any rate.’

‘What a pity! But perhaps you would allow me to seduce you?’

‘What nonsense you always talk, Herr Rudel!’

‘I don’t know yet if I’ll be free this evening,’ said Gurdweill. ‘I’ll tell you this afternoon.’

The girl seemed a little offended, and Gurdweill hastened to add: ‘Actually, there’s no reason why I can’t say yes right now. At any rate, I’ll do my best to be free.’

‘No,’ said the girl, ‘I completely forgot that an old childhood friend has asked me several times to get him a ticket to the Ninth with Salk … I’ll phone him first; he’s sure to jump at the chance. But if he’s busy, I’ll let you know this afternoon, Herr Gurdweill.’

‘Fine.’ Gurdweill smiled at her and made for the door. ‘We’ll leave it at that then.’

In fact, he did not have the least desire to go to a concert, and had only made his half-promise to please the girl, who for some reason seemed to him unhappy.

For the past two weeks Thea had been in Dozent Schramek’s sanatorium. The operation on her breasts had been successfully performed. Gurdweill visited her almost every day after work. During all this time she had been in a good mood, treating her husband with a degree of affection that gave him new hope and serenity. In his free time he was able to work on his writing without anyone to disturb him, and his satisfaction at the way it was going, too, contributed to the improvement in his general frame of mind. The constant feeling of oppression had grown somewhat lighter, and during this period he took in the world around him with alert senses, and the fresh vision of a man just released from a long term of imprisonment. Although Gurdweill was conscious of this inner liberation, he mistakenly attributed it to all kinds of other reasons, because his soul recoiled from the plain truth and because there was something stronger than the truth, which prevented it from penetrating his consciousness. He thus deluded himself into believing that the change stemmed from his own maturity, which had now reached a higher level in the natural course of its development, without any relation to external factors — and he was content with this explanation.