But I could not help pitying her at the moment, and the situation was becoming unbearable. A quarrel, a lover's quarrel was inevitable.
She knew it instinctively, and, seizing my hands, she implored me with her eyes; the ice melted; the sorceress won; I wavered ... I succumbed....
"To Katrineholm then!"
"Very well, if you'd rather."
She was having her luggage registered.
Everything was lost, including honour, and I had before me the prospect of a painful journey.
The train moved out of the station. We were alone in a first-class compartment. The Baron's non-appearance had depressed us. It was an unforeseen danger and a bad omen. An uneasy silence reigned in the carriage; one of us had to break it. She was the one to speak.
"Axel, you don't love me any more!"
"Perhaps not," I replied, worn out by a month of chaos.
"And I have sacrificed everything to you!"