"'Do help me to entreat her, Robert.' she began anew.
"I started. I had entirely forgotten him, and now his presence acted upon me like a reproach.
"'Give me time to consider it--till to-morrow.' I said, raising myself up. A dark presentiment awoke within me that here would be no abiding-place for me for long. Such happiness would have been too great for me, unhappy being, whom fate mercilessly drove among strangers.
"I saw that Martha was anxious to spare my feelings.
"'Till to-morrow, then.' she said softly, and squeezed my hand; 'and to-morrow you will have found out how necessary you are to us, and that we should be crazy if we let you go away again; isn't it so, Robert?'
"'Of course--why, of course!' he said, and with that burst into a laugh which sounded to me strangely forced. He evidently did not feel comfortable in the presence of us two. And soon after he took up his cap and showed signs of going off quietly.
"'Won't you show her our child?' whispered Martha, and a smile of unutterable bliss spread over her wasted features.
"'Come.' he said, 'it sleeps in the next room.'
"He preceded me. With difficulty he pushed his huge figure through the half-open door.
"There stood the cradle, lit up by the red rays of the setting sun. From among the pillows there peeped a little copper-coloured head, hardly larger than an apple. The wrinkled eyelids were closed, and in the little mouth was stuck one of the tiny fists, its fingers contracted, as if in a cramp.