Then Loerke rattled the box which held the biscuits.

‘Biscuits there are still,’ he said.

And reaching from his seated posture in the sledge, he handed them to Gudrun. She fumbled, and took one. He would have held them to Gerald, but Gerald so definitely did not want to be offered a biscuit, that Loerke, rather vaguely, put the box aside. Then he took up the small bottle, and held it to the light.

‘Also there is some Schnapps,’ he said to himself.

Then suddenly, he elevated the battle gallantly in the air, a strange, grotesque figure leaning towards Gudrun, and said:

‘Gnadiges Fraulein,’ he said, ‘wohl — ’