And the stout nurse from the hospital loomed up dimly out of the darkness and took on a definite shape. Yes, it was she; Gurdweill did not doubt it for a moment. And it did not surprise him in the least that instead of the usual white cap she was wearing a tall, grass-green hat, with a long red feather at its side. This curious hat, especially in combination with the white hospital gown, gave her the look of a bird, perhaps a white cock with a big red comb. Gurdweill knew that he had to beware of her, that for some unknown reason he must not go near her. Suddenly the reason became clear to him: the feather was excessively long, and if he came too close it would scratch his face with its sharp tip, and he would not be able to let Thea see him like that … He kept his distance and waited. The nurse was standing in front of a kind of music stand, three-quarters of her plump face turned towards Gurdweill, and her eyes on something that was lying on top of the stand, whose nature was not clear from a distance. They were alone in the room. The waiting began to grow irksome, Gurdweill was tired and thought that it would be nice if he could find a bench to sit on, like the ones in the garden outside. He looked around him for somewhere to sit down, but apart from the music stand the big room was bare. ‘That’s only natural’ — he immediately excused this to himself — ‘offices are never furnished.’ He leaned against the wall and looked out of the opposite window. There was a large apartment block there, with many storeys and numberless windows. Gurdweill was astonished. ‘I never knew,’ he said to himself, ‘that they’d started building skyscrapers like the ones in America in Vienna too! It must be a hospital,’ he concluded. ‘Everyone wants to go to hospital and they need a lot of space …’ Suddenly he remembered that he was in a hurry, he had no time to spare — how could he have forgotten it until now? Afraid of disturbing the nurse at her work, he tiptoed out through an immensely tall and broad doorway, like the entrance to a vast warehouse. ‘The entrance needs to be wide for the railway carriages, when they come in to spend the night,’ said Gurdweill confidently to himself. ‘Yes, it’s very cleverly done!’