Page 601 - women-in-love

The Herr Professor was prompt and energetic. He bowed
low to the English people, smiling, and began to be a com-
rade at once.
‘Nehmen die Herrschaften teil an unserer Unterhal-
tung?’ he said, with a vigorous suavity, his voice curling up
in the question.
The four English people smiled, lounging with an at-
tentive uneasiness in the middle of the room. Gerald, who
was spokesman, said that they would willingly take part in
the entertainment. Gudrun and Ursula, laughing, excited,
felt the eyes of all the men upon them, and they lifted their
heads and looked nowhere, and felt royal.
The Professor announced the names of those present,
SANS CEREMONIE. There was a bowing to the wrong peo-
ple and to the right people. Everybody was there, except the
man and wife. The two tall, clear-skinned, athletic daugh-
ters of the professor, with their plain-cut, dark blue blouses
and loden skirts, their rather long, strong necks, their clear
blue eyes and carefully banded hair, and their blushes,
bowed and stood back; the three students bowed very low,
in the humble hope of making an impression of extreme
good-breeding; then there was a thin, dark-skinned man
with full eyes, an odd creature, like a child, and like a troll,
quick, detached; he bowed slightly; his companion, a large
fair young man, stylishly dressed, blushed to the eyes and
bowed very low.
It was over.
‘Herr Loerke was giving us a recitation in the Cologne
dialect,’ said the Professor.

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