Timidly she gave voice to her wish--and found herself in a pretty mess.
"I am a free-thinker," he said, "I would never go counter to my convictions. Nevertheless, it is an enlightened man's duty to be tolerant, and if you want to go in, I will wait outside."
No, she no longer wanted to, and she was terribly ashamed. Of course, he could not know what close connection existed between St. Joseph and his good fortune. Otherwise he would not have been so ungrateful.
They walked in silence through the deserted streets of the suburbs. The fog lifted a little. Lilly chilled through and through shivered at each step. Perhaps excitement was the cause. On the whole, however, she felt much calmer than she had expected to. Everything was so altogether, altogether different. A little disenchantment had occurred, she did not know how.
She cast a yearning gaze down the street, at the end of which dark trees showed their heads.
"When once we are out there!" she thought, and clenched her teeth to keep them from chattering.
The silence began to paralyse her thoughts. She would gladly have started a conversation, had she been able to think of a suitable beginning.
A baker's boy was walking ahead of them whistling.
"When we worked all night," said Fritz Redlich suddenly, "we always bought warm rolls. We might get some now."
To be sure, had he said "we might steal some," she would have liked it better.
The baker's boy was not permitted to sell his rolls--just the right number for delivery had been doled out to him--but on the opposite side was an open shop.
When Lilly saw her hero reappear with a large bag in his hand, she had a pleasant sensation, as if they were beginning housekeeping together.
They now walked along gardens under a veritable shower of dew falling from the trees. Lilly shrugged her shoulders, and did not know what to do she felt so cold.
At last they were out in the open country.
Mats of silver-grey cobwebs, each weighted down with a burden of dew, were spread over the fields of high stubble. Yellow ridges of hills bounded the semicircle of the landscape, and in the distance rose the walls of the woods.
Lilly stretched her arms like a swimmer, and drew in through her open mouth five or six deep breaths.