She met his glance with a straight look; then she hung her head, and walked dumbly beside him.
"I will go back," she said suddenly.
He took her hand and begged: "Forgive me, Frau Lisbeth! please!"
She nodded silently and turned back on the road they had just traversed.
In her little sitting-room she sank limply into a chair. The windows were wide open; she heard the rippling of the brook, and the insects humming and buzzing in the big willow. At last she roused herself. She must be certain if Trautvetter was right in his suspicion, and that would need cunning. Her plan was soon made; it was very simple: she need only behave as if she had been following her husband's hint, then he would have to declare himself.
"Henke," she began that evening, "Trautvetter has made a proposal to-day. As soon as he has finished his service he is going to buy a place in the country, far away from here, and he wants me to keep house for him. If you agree, then you shall have a hundred marks a month."
Henke was silent for a time; he was in some doubt what he should say to this. Lisbeth was so queer and cold, almost uncanny; but on the other hand she did not seem to be the least annoyed.
In a tone of would-be resignation he said at last: "Well, Lisbeth, if you don't love me any more, if you think it's for your happiness, and you like to leave me----" he stopped.
His wife was suddenly standing before him, deathly pale. She shook her trembling clasped hands in his face, and spat contemptuously on the boards in front of him. Then she fled from the room.
He looked after her stupefied.