I felt a foreboding of sorrow as I gazed out through the little window before climbing up into my high bed. Lights still twinkled in some of the houses, but a white mist was rising from the river, and the drowsy long-drawn chant of the summer night invited me to dreamless sleep.
The next morning I could not resist questioning Jacobina, who also had her lover among the soldiers, if all was well.
'O yes. They stay,—all but two. We's married next mont.'
'And the two?'
'Karl and Gustav.'
'And Wilhelmina!' I exclaimed.
'O she let him go,' answered Jacobina, bringing fresh coffee.
'Poor child! How does she bear it?'
'O so. She cannot help. She say noding.'
'But the trustees, will they allow these young men to leave the Community?'