And once he moved uneasily in his chair and looked at her quite differently and said:
“Adelheid ... why have I no child but him?”
He said that very quietly and, a little after, he said it again. He said it to himself and not to her. She saw this and wept, because she knew he did not perceive it.
And the evening sped on.
They sat quietly and she was silent and talked again of their son up there in the old room. Then she said:
“Cordt, let us go up to him!”
“Both of us?”
She listened anxiously whether he would say any more ... whether he would reflect who she was and thrust her from him in anger, as he had done before.
But he sat silent and looked at the red glow in the fireplace.