Under the lindens they were surrounded at once by noise and bustle.
The streets were full of rowdy bands of men who sang and shouted all
together, now pushing one another in violent rudeness, now shouting
"Health to the New Year," here knocking off an angry Philistine's
hat, there surrounding and embracing some honest man who was wearily
making his way homeward; insulting the police by imitating their
military ways, laying hold of their sticks, talking pompously to the
night-watchman, and otherwise playing the fool. After the silence
of the Koniggratzer Strasse, the drunken turmoil of this noisy mob
was doubly unpleasant, and the two friends hastened to escape into
the Schadowstrasse. At Wilhelm's doorstep they took leave of each
other; Paul went off humming a snatch of Offenbach up the
Friedrichstrasse to his home near the Weidendamme.
Wilhelm was tired, but much too excited to sleep. He lived over
again in thought the last few months, and, as often happened lately,
he lapsed into painful meditation on his relations to Loulou. After
her departure from Hornberg she had not written to him for eight
days. Then came a letter from Ostend, in which she called Wilhelm
"Sie." She said she was very sorry for this, that it would be
painful if she called him "Du" and he did not return it, but it
would be safer not to do so, as his answer would certainly be read
by her mother, and perhaps by her father also, and they would not
wish them to say "Du" to each other.
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