Christian considered in order to weigh his answer carefully. “Nothing but what I have told you.”
She became silent and stared at her hands. “My mother lives in Berlin,” she murmured. “Maybe you’d want me to go back to her. I don’t want to.”
“You are to go with me.” Christian’s tone was firm and almost hard. His chest filled with breath and exhaled the air painfully. The final word had been spoken.
Karen looked at him again. But now her eyes were serious and awake to reality. “And what shall I do when I’m with you?”
Christian answered hesitatingly: “I’ve come to no decision about that. I must think it over.”
Karen folded her hands. “But I’ve got to know who you are.”
He spoke his name.
“I am a pregnant woman,” she said with a sombre look, and for the first time her voice trembled, “a street-walker who’s pregnant. Do you know that? I’m the lowest and vilest thing in the whole world! Do you know that?”
“I know it,” said Christian, and cast down his eyes.
“Well, what does a fine gentleman like you want to do with me? Why do you take such an interest in me?”