In half an hour or so Hanka came back.
"They are asleep now," she said.
"I was wondering if I might ask you to stay," said Tidemand. "We live rather informally here; we keep house in a way, but nothing seems to go right for us. If you would like to have dinner with us—I don't know what they are going to give us to eat, but if you will take things as they are?"
She looked at him shyly, like a young girl; she said: "Thank you."
After dinner, when they had returned to the drawing-room, Hanka said suddenly:
"Andreas, you mustn't think I came here to-day thinking that everything could be well again with us. Don't think that. I simply came because I couldn't wait any longer; I had to see you again."
"I have not thought of that at all," he said. "But it seems the children don't want to let you go."
"I have no thought of asking you again what I asked you for once," she said. "That would be impossible; I know it too well. But perhaps you would allow me to come and visit you at times?"
Tidemand bowed his head. She had no thought of coming back; it was all over.
"Come whenever you like; come every day," he said. "You are not coming to see me."