Then, suddenly, it was quenched in the great silence of the old room.
The candles were burning on the mantelpiece.... She sat and stared into the red hearth. Now Cordt spoke ... Cordt in the old days:
“I will stake life and happiness to win you. I will talk to you and importune you and conquer you. I will take you in my arms and close my door to you and run after you and forgive you. And, if I do not win you, I shall cast you off.”
She sprang up and clasped her head in her two hands:
“Cordt ... Cordt....”
He turned round and looked into her white face.
She raised her face to him and sought and stared after her portrait in his eyes ... only a thought from the old days ... a memory....
It was not there. For him there was nothing in the world except that which was his happiness and his fear and his struggle ... now as in the old days....
And it was no longer she.
“Adelheid ... are you ill?”