"'So you want to lose Martha for ever?'
"Now I felt myself once more so strong and joyous in my rôle of guardian, that I would have taken up fight with the whole world to bring these two together. Foolish, unsuspecting creature that I was!
"'Have I not already lost her?' he replied, and stared into vacancy.
"'What did she say to you to-day?'
"'Why should I repeat it? She spoke very wisely and very staidly, as one can only speak if one has ceased to love a person.'
"'And you really believe that?' I asked.
"'Must I not believe it? And after all, what does it signify? Even if she had retained a remnant of her affection for me, she did well to get rid of it thoroughly on this occasion; it is better thus, for her as well as for me. I have nothing to offer her; no happiness, no joy, not even some little paltry pleasure, nothing but work, and trouble, and anxiety--from year's end to year's end. And added to that, a mother-in-law who is hostile to her, who would make her feel it keenly, that she had come with empty hands.'
"I felt how my blood rushed to my face. I was ashamed, but not for Martha or myself--for I was of course just as poor as she; no, for him, that he should have to speak thus of his own mother.
"'And now say yourself, my girl,' he went on, 'is she not wiser, with such prospects before her, to remain in the shelter of her warm nest, and to send me about my business, as I could never give her anything but unhappiness?'
"He dishevelled his hair and ran about the room the while like a hunted animal.