"Can one be forgotten so easily?" she asked. "But that does not apply to
you, surely."
"Oh, yes, to me as well as to the rest," he replied. "Why shouldn't I be
forgotten?"
She answered quite simply:
"I thought you were too well known."
"Known? Oh, as to that, Lord help us! I may not be so entirely unknown, of
course, but--You must not think it is an easy matter to keep one's head
above water here; one friend is envious, another hateful and malicious, a
third simply despicable. No; as far as _that_ is concerned--"
"It seems to me, however, that you are known, and well known, too," she
said. "We cannot walk two steps that somebody isn't whispering about you;
I have noticed it all along." She stopped.
"No, it is unbearable; I just heard another remark! Rather let us go up to
the Exhibition at once!"
He laughed heartily, greatly flattered. How charming she was in her naive
and unspoiled way! He said: Never mind; keep on! Pay no attention
whatever. One got used to this whispering; if it amused people, what of
it? He himself never noticed it any more; honestly, it did not affect him
in the least. Besides, he wanted to let her know that to-day _he_ was
not the only subject of conversation--what about her? She could believe
him or not; she was being thoroughly discussed.
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