pple had once had any good looks, and what position she
had held among rope-dancers.

The little gray-haired woman looked up with sparkling eyes. Under the
name of "Phyllis" she had earned, ere her limbs were stiffened by age,
great applause by her dainty egg-dance and all sorts of feats with
the balancing pole. The manager of the band had finally given her the
position of crier to support herself and her blind boy. This had made
her voice so hollow and hoarse that it was difficult to understand her
as, with fervid eloquence, vainly striving to be heard by absent-minded
Kuni, she began: "She surpassed even Maravella the Spaniard. And her
feats at Augsburg during the Reichstag--I tell you, Cyriax, when she
ascended the rope to the belfry, with the pole and without--"

"I've just heard of that from another quarter," he interrupted. "What I
want to know is whether she pleased the eyes of men."

"What's that to you?" interposed red-haired Gitta jealously, trying to
draw him away from Gundel by the chain.

Raban laughed heartily, and lame Jungel, chuckling, rapped on the floor
with his right crutch, exclaiming:

"Good for you!"

Kuni was accustomed to such outbursts of merriment. They were almost
always awakened by some trifle, and this time she did not even hear
the laughing. But Cyriax struck his wife so rudely on the hand that she
jerked furiously at the chain and, with a muttered oath, blew on
the bruised spot. Meanwhile Gundel was telling the group how many
distinguished gentlemen had formerly paid court to Kuni. She was as
agile as a squirrel. Her pretty little face, with its sparkling blue
eyes, attracted the men as bacon draws mice. Then, pleased to have
listeners, she related how the girl had lured florins and zecchins from
the purse of many a wealthy ecclesiastic. She might have been as rich as
the Fuggers if she hadn't met with the accident and had understood how
to keep what she earned. But she could not hold on to her gold. She had
flung it away like useless rubbish. So long as she possessed anything
there had been no want in Loni's company. She, Gundel, had caught her
arm more than once when she was going to fling Hungarian ducats, instead
of coppers, to good-for-nothing beggars. She had often urged her, too,
to think of old age, but Kuni--never cared for any one longer than a
few weeks, though there were some whom she might easily have induced to
offer her the wedding ring.

She glanced at Kuni again,