“No, they leave before noon.”

“There is one man who is deeply grateful for that. 
How did you find out?  You asked, I suppose?”

“No, along at first I inquired into their plans, in a general way, and they said they were going to be here a week, and make trips round about; but toward the end of the interview, when I said you and I would tour around with them with pleasure, and offered to bring you over and introduce you, they hesitated a little, and asked if you were from the same establishment that I was.  I said you were, and then they said they had changed their mind and considered it necessary to start at once and visit a sick relative in Siberia.”

“Ah, me, you struck the summit!  You struck the loftiest altitude of stupidity that human effort has ever reached.  You shall have a monument of jackasses’ skulls as high as the Strasburg spire if you die before I do.  They wanted to know I was from the same ‘establishment’ that you hailed from, did they?  What did they mean by ’establishment’?”

“I don’t know; it never occurred to me to ask.”

“Well I know—­ they meant an asylum—­ an idiot asylum, do you understand?  So they do think there’s a pair of us, after all.  Now what do you think of yourself?”

“Well, I don’t know.  I didn’t know I was doing any harm; I didn’t mean to do any harm.  They were very nice people, and they seemed to like me.”

Harris made some rude remarks and left for his bedroom —­to break some furniture, he said.  He was a singularly irascible man; any little thing would disturb his temper.

I had been well scorched by the young woman, but no matter, I took it out on Harris.  One should always “get even” in some way, else the sore place will go on hurting.

CHAPTER XXVI [The Nest of the Cuckoo-clock]

The Hofkirche is celebrated for its organ concerts.  All summer long the tourists flock to that church about six o’clock in the evening, and pay their franc, and listen to the noise.  They don’t stay to hear all of it, but get up and tramp out over the sounding stone floor, meeting late comers who tramp in in a sounding and vigorous way.  This tramping back and forth is kept up nearly all the time, and is accented by the continuous slamming of the door, and the coughing and barking and sneezing of the crowd.  Meantime, the big organ is booming and crashing and thundering away, doing its best to prove that it is the biggest and best organ in Europe, and that a tight little box of a church is the most favorable place to average and appreciate its powers in.  It is true, there were some soft and merciful passages occasionally, but the tramp-tramp of the tourists only allowed one to get fitful glimpses of them, so to speak.  Then right away the organist would let go another avalanche.