" (He rose and kissed Vera's hand, and on the way to her straightened out a turned-up corner of the carpet.

) "And how have I obtained all this? Chiefly by knowing how to choose my aquaintances.

It goes without saying that one must be conscientious and methodical.

" Berg smiled with a sense of his superiority over a weak woman, and paused, reflecting that this dear wife of his was after all but a weak woman who could not understand all that constitutes a man's dignity, what it was ein Mann zu sein.

* Vera at the same time smiling with a sense of superiority over her good, conscientious husband, who all the same understood life wrongly, as according to Vera all men did.