"No, why should I allow it?"
"Good night." Then she went.
He slept well and deeply as if after an event which he had long expected.
The next morning he woke up with the distinct idea: "She has not gone; she is keeping somewhere in the neighbourhood."
When he went out, he saw the maid getting into the ferry-boat with some of the child's things.
"Ha, ha," then he understood. She was waiting on the other side of the stream. The maid came back soon, after he had watched her manoeuvres on the other side through his opera-glass. "If I only keep quiet now," he thought, "the imperialists are routed."
His mother-in-law came and looked uneasy but yielding. "Well, now you are alone my son and will never see her any more."
"Is she then so far away?"
"Yes."
He laughed and looked over the water.