Gemma seized his arm, and with quiet decision, giving him hers, she looked her former betrothed full in the face.. . . The latter screwed up his face, shrugged his shoulders, shuffled to one side, and muttering between his teeth, 'The usual end to the song!' (Das alte Ende vom Liede!)—walked away with the same dashing, slightly skipping gait.
'What did he say, the wretched creature?' asked Sanin, and would have rushed after Klüber; but Gemma held him back and walked on with him, not taking away the arm she had slipped into his.
The Rosellis' shop came into sight. Gemma stopped once more.
'Dimitri, Monsieur Dimitri,' she said, 'we are not there yet, we have not seen mamma yet. . . . If you would rather think a little, if . . . you are still free, Dimitri!'
In reply Sanin pressed her hand tightly to his bosom, and drew her on.
'Mamma,' said Gemma, going with Sanin to the room where Frau Lenore was sitting, 'I have brought the real one!'
XXIX
If Gemma had announced that she had brought with her cholera or death itself, one can hardly
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