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 crowd. Speeches followed upon speeches, and then two or three speakers were talking at the same time. Kutzendorfer gave the company a full force of marches in breathless succession. The beer poured down the throats. The white panaches shook slowly on the veterans’ heads, though somewhat to one side.

The red glow of the setting sun, reflected on the surface of the Elbe, flooded the island. The golden air was filled with grey tobacco smoke, which rose, snakelike, through the branches of the oaks to the sky. Here and there a swarm of gnats flew by in a whirling mass. Tiny waiters placed candles in glass globes upon the tables, There was a noise and din.

Lucy sat like a lifeless statue. That merriment was strange to her; she did not understand it, and she looked at it as if from some far distance. No one spoke to her, except the old aunt. Not a word. She felt that all were shielding themselves from contact