His face,
preternaturally emaciated and fatigued, opened to emit an amazing yodel.
When the _Schuhplattltanz_ was reached he surprised the audience by an
extraordinary exhibition. He threw his long legs about like billiard
cues, while his arms flapped as do windmills in a hard gale. He was
pointed out as a celebrity--once a monster Englishman, who had taken the
_Kur_; who was in love, but so poor that he could not marry. The girl
with him was certain to make a success in grand opera some day. Yes,
Marienbad was proud of Krayne. He was one of her show sons, a witness to
her curative powers. Proud also of the Bavarian Praeger Sextette. Herr
Praeger was reputed a rich man....
The night of that concert Marienbad saw the last of the Bavarian
sextette, which at midnight, joined by its old dancer with the tenor
voice, left in a third-class carriage for Vienna. Hugh Krayne, not
possessing enough to pay his passage, had not been invited; nor was he
informed of the sudden departure until a day later....
* * * * *
On the road to the Alm, of moonlight nights, toiling visitors catch
glimpses of a human, almost a skeleton, dressed in rags, his head bare
as his feet, about his neck a flaming crimson handkerchief.
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