‘Why not?’ intervened Ulrich. ‘It’s not nice for a woman to get drunk, but a drink or two? That doesn’t detract from their femininity or attraction. On the contrary — all it does is make the blood flow a little faster, making a pretty woman even prettier and more lively.’

The waiter uncorked the dusty bottle, and Dr Astel, as the host, poured. He ordered another bottle immediately. They clinked glasses and drank. The heavy wine soon lit a fire in their blood: their faces grew flushed; their voices grew louder, bolder, and more animated.

Two men passed close to their table and greeted the Baroness with what seemed to Gurdweill excessive friendliness. They sat down at a table not far off, which had just been vacated. Gurdweill looked at them suspiciously. These men were involved in Thea’s past, an alien, unknown past in which Gurdweill had no part, and which, without admitting it to himself, he hated. She had not told him anything about her past, and he had not asked, perhaps out of a secret fear that he might hear something very painful that was better left alone. But any man she had known previously and without him was antipathetic to him in advance, arousing a profound hostility that he preferred not to examine too closely.

He poured a glass of wine down his throat and lit a cigarette. He kept stealing sidelong glances at the two strange men.

The effect of the wine on Lotte was immediate. She was sitting on Gurdweill’s left and she put her arm around his neck, an arm bare to the armpit, smooth, pale and shapely, covered with a fine down from the elbow to the wrist, and whispered into his ear, breathing hotly and swallowing half her words:

‘She doesn’t … you’ll see … In the end you’ll find out … she doesn’t love you … A woman sees these things at once … She’s heartless … you’ll see later …’

But Gurdweill paid no attention at all to what she was saying. He suddenly saw that the two men were smiling at Thea. It even seemed to him that they were making signs to her with their glasses and winking at her. A kind of burning, heavy lump suddenly rose in his gorge and shot into his head. Cold shivers ran down his spine. He pushed back his chair and went over to their table before anyone realised what was happening.

‘What do you think you’re doing?’ he demanded in a hoarse, trembling voice. ‘Be so kind as to stop that vulgar winking at once!’

‘Wha-at?’ The two men jumped up. ‘Get lost! What the hell has it got to do with you?’

Thea came running up and grabbed Gurdweill’s raised arm before he could strike them.

‘Leave them alone, Rudolfus!’ she ordered in a commanding voice. ‘What are you looking for fights for? You’re drunk. These men are acquaintances of mine.’