onvenient, and is regarded as less of an event."

"It is no event to me to wash," he said indignantly; "I find no
excitement in washing."

"I never said you did; I was comparing quite another class of society
with their equals in the other country."

"But to shave," he went on, "that I find terrible."

"It's no worse than having a _coiffure_ to make."

"But I have no _coiffure_ to make."

"No; but I have."

He threw his cigarette into the street.

"It is not so bad as shaving."

"It takes longer."

"Yes; but shaving you may cut yourself."

Rosina laughed; he heard her and turned suspiciously.

"Why do you laugh?"

"Because."

"What amuses you?"

"You do."

He smiled and they walked one or two blocks in silence. They were now in
the suburb of Schwabing, far out by the western end of the
Englischergarten. The street was very uninteresting and comparatively
deserted.

"Do you see my cravat?" he asked.

She was wondering if they had not better be returning towards home.

"I know that you have one on," she said; "I can't say that I notice
anything especial about it."

"I will show you something very curious about it."

"You're not going to take it off, are you?"

"I will show you how I tie it."

"I know how to tie that kind myself."

"Not as I tie it."

Then he deliberately handed her his umbrella and untied his cravat, and
proceeded to turn one end up and fold the other across and poke a loop
through and draw an end under, and thus manipulate the whole into a
reproduction of the same tiny bowknot as before. She held the umbrella
and contemplated the performance with an interest which was most
flattering to his labor.

"I don't see how you ever do it," she exclaimed when the job was
complete and he took the umbrella again.

"I will teach you some day," he said readily. "I have myself invented
four cravats," he added with pride.

"Will you teach me all the four?"

"Yes; I have thought, if I shall ever be poor, to go to Paris and have a
cab and drive about from house to house each morning and tie cravats
_pour les messieurs_. You can see how many would pay for that."

"Yes; but when you arrived and they were not ready,--were still in bed,
you know,--what would you do then?"

He reflected, and then shrugged his shoulders.

"I would put on the collar, tie the cravat, and leave monsieur to sleep
again."

Rosina's marital past presented her mind with a lively picture of one of
the cra