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RV 375 (BUDDENBROOKS) dear boy? Quite unchanged, I see, since I saw you in Munich.”

“You can’t tell much about it with the blinds down, my dear. And you ought not to steal my thunder like that, either. It is more suitable for me to say&mdash;” he held her hand in his, and at the same time drew up a chair beside the bed&mdash;“as I so often have, that you and Tilda&mdash;”

“Oh, for shame, Tom!&mdash;How is Tilda?”

“Well, of course. Madame Krauseminz sees she doesn’t starve. Which doesn’t prevent her eating for the week ahead when she comes here on Thursday.”

She laughed very heartily&mdash;as she had not for a long time back, in fact. Then she broke off with a sigh, and asked “And how is business?”

“Oh, we get on. Mustn’t complain.”

“Thank goodness, here everything is as it should be. Oh, Tom, I don’t feel much like chatting pleasantly about trifles!”

“Pity. One should preserve one’s sense of humour, quand même.”

“All that is at an end, Tom.&mdash;You know all?”

“&ThinSpace;‘You know all’!” he repeated. He dropped her hand and pushed back his chair. “Goodness gracious, how that sounds! ‘All! What-all lies in that ‘all’? ‘My love and grief I gave thee,’ eh? No, listen!”

She was silent, She swept him with an astonished and deeply offended glance,

“Yes, I expected that look,” he said, “for without that look you would not be here, But, dear Tony, let me take the thing as much too lightly as you take it too seriously. You will see we shall complement each other very nicely&mdash;”

“Too seriously, Thomas? I take it too seriously?”

“Yes.&mdash;For heaven’s sake, don’t let’s make a tragedy of it! Let us take it in a lower key, not with ‘all is at an end’ and ‘your unhappy Antonie.’ Don’t misunderstand me, Tony. You well know that no one can be gladder than I that you have come. I have long wished you would come to us on a visit

RV 375 (375)