Her quick eyes had already recognized him from the doorway.

She returned his greeting smiling and blushing, and as her father nodded kindly, the ice was broken.

Wilhelm introduced himself, and the councilor gave him the tips of his fingers and said: "If you have no objection we will sit at your table." His wife, who gazed at Wilhelm through a gold "pince-nez" with hardly concealed surprise, took her place next to him; on the other side sat her husband, and opposite the daughter's face smiled at him.
The councilor was a well-preserved man of about fifty, of good height, dressed in a well-made gray traveling suit, with a light gray silk tie adorned with a pin of black pearl.

His closely-cut hair was very thin, and had almost disappeared from the top of his head.

His chin was clean-shaven, but his well-brushed whiskers and closely-cut mustache showed signs of gray.