‘Yes. We smiled at one another when we passed. We wished each other well. It was a very odd sort of friendship. But I did like her.’

‘And did you ever model a character in a book on her?’

‘No. But I felt I’d learned from knowing her. And I was protective of her right to live as she chose. I felt sad at her funeral. Hardly anyone came.’

As he walked back across the bridge, Anton felt disappointed. He had hoped for some clue to Lena, something that would explain how she embodied Delphine, but perhaps that had been an absurd thing to expect. Herr Gustav clearly didn’t know Lena well; he had seen her from afar for the first dozen years of her life, but not much more.

What had been more revealing was Gustav’s account of his relationship with Carina. He had clearly expected Anton to be surprised by it, and Anton had been careful not to reveal that he understood only too well. In the time when he was purging himself of the need for Delphine, he had slept with many women in Vienna whose names he had never asked. He had tried to be generous to them and gentle in his actions, but most of the women had been only a sensation, albeit pleasurable to both parties; they had been unaware of the function they performed for him by providing another foothold in a normality he had lost. Gustav, by contrast, had known Carina, returned to her, had anonymously paid her rent; to Anton, their friendship verged on the normal. He knew what Gustav meant when he tried to explain, somewhat shamefacedly, that even such an honestly carnal affair, with no thought of ‘love’, could have other qualities. For some years Anton had not only believed that such a thing was possible; he had in a phrase of Friedrich’s that used to make him smile, ‘bet the house on it’. One woman could stand for another, even if in the end it might take sixty to amount to one.

He had almost reached the market square, when he heard his name called and turned to see Martha waving from the Bahnhofstrasse.

‘What happened to you?’

‘I lost you,’ said Anton. ‘I was distracted and then … I looked in all the clothes shops I could find, though there didn’t seem to be many.’

‘We waited in Herr Thaller’s.’

‘I’d forgotten that name. I’m sorry.’

‘It doesn’t matter. Lena and I went to the Mahler. We had hot chocolate.’

Anton looked at Lena, whose face remained averted.

‘And,’ said Martha, ‘there’s still time to get you what you need. We know the best place to go now. Unless you’ve gone off the idea.’

‘No, no … By all means let’s … go shopping.’

3

Lena had noticed that Anton had fallen behind them soon after they left the van. She had hurried Martha onwards, distracting her with gossip about the servants; when she saw Anton approaching the window of Herr Thaller’s, where they were waiting, she stepped behind a tall display so as not to be seen. It was not long before she was able to persuade Martha to abandon the expedition.