Afterwards he crossed the Ring and approached Karlsplatz. He would go to Dr Astel’s anyway, although it was already doubtful if he would find him at home. Some of the paving stones on the square had been torn up where they were repairing the tram tracks, and the ripped-up stones were lying one on top of the other next to the long fissure, which had exposed the dark-yellow soil below. ‘In any event,’ reflected Gurdweill as he walked over the loose, soft soil, ‘in any event it would be better to work for a man like the “general” than my buffoon.’ At that moment his eye was caught by a group of people clustering next to the fence around the little garden in the centre of the square. He went up and pushed his way through the little crowd. A policeman was bending over a young woman sitting propped up against the fence. She appeared to have fainted, and her face was deathly pale. Her black hat had slipped sideways, and her head was drooping and wobbling to and fro, as if it were about to drop off. The policeman supported her head with one hand while attempting to force a glass of water into her mouth with the other, but her lips were clamped shut and the water spilled down her chin and dripped onto her dress. In the end her eyes opened a slit, revealing two lines of white, and then the lids came down again. After a moment she opened her mouth and drank what was left of the water in the glass. Her eyes opened too, and she looked around her in bewilderment. She tried to lift her limp hand as if to protect herself, and mumbled something unintelligible. Gradually she recovered her senses, and an embarrassed expression appeared on her face. ‘Please, it’s nothing,’ she murmured in a barely audible whisper, ‘a little weakness, only a little weakness.’ She tried to get up, leaning on her hands, but her hands were too weak to support her and she fell back with a guilty smile. ‘I’ll just rest a minute,’ she whispered apologetically, glancing around as if she were pleading for her life.

Her eye fell on Gurdweill and rested on him for a moment. Gurdweill felt something like a sudden push from behind, took a step towards the policeman, who had already straightened up and set about dispersing the crowd, and said firmly: ‘I know this woman, officer! She lives in my neighbourhood, in Heinestrasse. I’ll take her home.’

Later he himself was astonished at his strange behaviour and the urgent inner necessity that had prompted it, a necessity that brooked no refusal. In any event, the policeman believed him and accepted his offer with some relief. Gurdweill bent over the woman and whispered as he helped her to her feet, ‘Forgive me, madam. Don’t be alarmed. I’ll take you wherever you want to go.’