Dabei erhaschte er, während er vor den letzten Gruppen der Bürger, die ihre Thüren schlossen, vorbeiging, manches Bruchstück ihrer Unterhaltungen, welches die Kette seiner lieblichen Vermuthungen zerriß.
Meanwhile, from time to time, as he passed the last groups of bourgeois closing their doors, he caught some scraps of their conversation, which broke the thread of his pleasant hypotheses.