"Just simply good.... Tell me, is it merely because of the weather that things don't seem to run smoothly?"
"No, material things aren't everything."
"Is it because of Addie?"
"Perhaps. I can't say. I feel an oppression, here." She put both her hands to her heart. "It's always liable to come, a day...."
"Yes."
"A day of sorrow, illness, wretchedness ... of misfortune ... of disaster."
"Why should you think that?"
"I often think it: now there's a misfortune coming, a disaster.... I sit and wait for it.... Oh, I've been waiting for it for months!... The children look at me, ask me what's the matter, whether anything has happened ... with Mathilde.... No, nothing ever happens.... There is no sympathy between us ... but I, I am calm and I wish her every good ... my son's wife...."
"You must get over that oppression."
"It can't be argued away."