Thea placed the parcel she had brought with her on the table and opened it, revealing a tin of sprats, pickled cucumbers, sausage, and rolls.

‘Bring the corkscrew!’ she commanded her husband.

‘No need,’ Heidelberger intervened. ‘I’ve got a penknife with a corkscrew attached!’

And he began uncorking the bottles: a bottle of three-star brandy, and one of old white Bordeaux wine, with a dusty label upon which the year 1905 appeared. He pointed this out to Gurdweill triumphantly.

‘You see, twenty years old! It must be excellent.’

Thea poured brandy into the glasses, one for her husband too.

‘Drink, idiot!’ she scolded him, when he tried to excuse himself on the pretext of feeling unwell.

After taking an obligatory sip, which tasted like bitter medicine, he put his glass down again. He did this standing up, as if he had not a moment to waste. Thea and Heidelberger emptied the brandy in their half-full glasses in one gulp.

‘Not bad,’ said Thea, swallowing a piece of sausage. And to her husband: ‘Where’s the coffee? Go and make it at once. And make it good and strong!’

Gurdweill obeyed. A few minutes later he came back from the kitchen with the coffeepot and put it on the table. Then he tried to withdraw to the couch, but his wife would not have it.

‘Sit here with us! And drink!’ She jerked her chin in the direction of his glass.

‘I’ll drink l-later,’ stammered Gurdweill.

‘You mustn’t shame us, Herr Gurdweill! What a pity Gustl isn’t here. If she only knew, she would come running on all fours, and then we’d have a foursome! She’s a great admirer of the Herr Doktor’s, hee-hee!’

‘And Lotte?’ In the middle of making herself a sandwich, Thea suddenly turned to her husband. ‘Tired of it all, was she? An unhappy love affair, perhaps?’

Gurdweill’s blood rushed to his head. In a quiet but firm voice he said: ‘Leave Lotte alone. I don’t want you to talk about her!’

‘And why not, my precious? If she was such a fool! She got what she deserved, the silly fool. Why are you staring at me with those calf’s eyes, as if you wanted to swallow me alive? You can join her if you like! The world will get along very well without the pair of you! And if it will make her happy, just imagine how happy it will make me!’

‘You haven’t … You’d better …’ began Gurdweill in a trembling voice, and he left his sentence unfinished.

‘What? What? Speak plainly and stop bleating like a calf. To life, Herr Heidelberger! To the healthy and the brave!’

Gurdweill bowed his head in silence.

‘Help yourself, Herr Heidelberger!’ Thea pushed the rolls and sausage in his direction.

The guest was not unwilling. He took another hefty gulp of brandy, and topped it off with the proffered delicacies.