"The bottle?"
"Both."
"From rumors I've heard, this princess is a great one for larks; rides
bicycles and automobiles, and generally raises the deuce. What sort is
she?"
"If you are going to remain in Barscheit, my boy, take a friendly
warning. Do not make any foolish attempt to see her. She is more
fascinating than a roulette table."
This was a sly dig. Max smiled. A recent letter from him had told of
an encounter with the goddess of Monte Carlo. Fortune had been all
things but favorable.
"I'm not afraid of your princess; besides, I came here to study."
"And study hard, my boy, study hard. Her Highness is not the only
pretty woman in Barscheit. There's a raft of them."
"I'll paddle close to the shore," with a smile.
"By the way, I'll wake you up Thursday."
"How?"--lazily.
"A bout at Müller's Rathskeller. Half a dozen American lads, one of
whom is called home. Just fixed up his passports for him. You'll be
as welcome as the flowers in the spring. Some of the lads will be in
your classes."
"Put me down. It will be like old times. I went to the reunion last
June. Everything was in its place but you. Hang it, why can't time
always go on as it did then?"
"Time, unlike our watches, never has to go to the jeweler's for
repairs," said I owlishly.
Max leaned over, took my bull-terrier by the neck and deposited him on
his lap.
"Good pup, Artie--if he's anything like his master. Three years, my
boy, since I saw you. And here you are, doing nothing and lallygagging
at court with the nobility. I wish I had had an uncle who was a
senator. 'Pull' is everything these days."
"You Dutchman, I won this place on my own merit,"--indignantly.
"Forget it!"--grinning.
"You are impertinent."
"But truthful, always."
And then we smoked a while in silence. The silent friend is the best
of the lot. He knows that he hasn't got to talk unless he wants to,
and likewise that it is during these lapses of speech that the vine of
friendship grows and tightens about the heart. When you sit beside a
man and feel that you need not labor to entertain him it's a good sign
that you thoroughly understand each other. I was first to speak.
"I don't understand why you should go in for medicine so thoroughly.
It can't be money, for heaven knows your father left you a yearly
income which alone would be a fortune to me."
"Chivalry shivers these days; the chill of money is on everything. A
man must do something--a man who is neither a sloth nor a fool. A man
must have something to put his whole heart into; and I despise money as
money. I give away the bulk of my income."