Then she sprang to her feet, pushed the chair back with such violence that it fell to the ground, and ran off.
I stood like one stunned and could not for a while understand what she had said; but then I remembered how often my mother cried, how sad my father looked, and all at once my veil of ignorance was lifted. I went back into the house, but as shyly and softly as if I were a criminal, and sat down silently on a chair. My mother sat at the table with the youngest child in her arms, and looked at me in surprise. I was generally very noisy, and upset a chair three times before I sat down.
"Have you quarrelled with someone?" she asked.
"No; but I should like to know whether what everyone says is true."
My mother trembled a little.
"What nonsense! What does everyone say?"
"That we have nothing left but debts."
My mother got up from the chair and put the child on the bed; then she pulled the table-cover straight, and stared hard at an empty corner of the room.
"By-the-by," she said, as if she was really thinking of something quite different, "who said that?"
When I had told her she sighed deeply. No other sound was heard in the room.