‘Please sit down, Herr Gurdweill. Over here,’ she indicated the sofa as she removed her hat, ‘it’s more comfortable on the sofa. I’ll just shut the window a little,’ she added immediately, ‘the noise from the street is quite deafening …’

Gurdweill was not yet seated. He took a few steps and rubbed his hands together as if he felt cold. Then he stood next to the table. Absent-mindedly he took his pipe out of his pocket and put it back again. An inner restlessness had him in its grip, as if in the face of some impending disaster. Like an animal facing its predator, he watched the woman’s movements, which had suddenly grown lax and careless. He heard her murmur something about coffee, but it took him a while to understand what she had said. He stammered, ‘No … there’s no need … not now …’

All of a sudden Gustl seemed exhausted, and she sank onto the sofa, her face flushed. And the next minute, without knowing how it had happened, he found himself sitting beside her on the sofa, his hands fumbling with her dress. She only whispered in a weak, drowsy drawl, ‘No-o-o, no-o-o …’ and lay back on the sofa …

Gustl tidied her hair in front of the mirror, a satisfied smirk on her flushed face. Gurdweill felt uncomfortable and slightly ashamed, and if it had been possible, he would have left at once. He was still sitting on the sofa. In his embarrassment he took out his pipe again and began stuffing it with an air of great concentration. Then he got up and stood vacantly next to the table, afraid to glance in Gustl’s direction. She approached him from behind and stood beside him, where she appeared to hesitate for a moment and then planted a hasty, burning kiss on his left cheek. She was the first to break the tense silence.

‘If you’ll excuse me, Herr Gurdweill, I’ll go and make the coffee.’ And she slipped out of the room.

Gurdweill sat down on a chair. A clatter of dishes rose from the kitchen, and immediately died down again. He suddenly remembered the morning’s slap and felt a dull ache in his left cheek. ‘Ah, nonsense!’ he exclaimed aloud and tried resolutely to distract his thoughts from the unpleasant memory and focus all his attention on the woman with the baby in her arms, whom he could see standing at one of the windows of the brown house opposite.