"Herman, I have something to tell you."
"What is it?"
"Something to confide to you. But first tell me: that time with the tiger, you didn't think me a great coward, did you?"
"No, certainly not!"
"Well, I'm a coward for all that. I'm frightened, always frightened. The doctors don't know it, because I never tell them. But I always am...."
"But of what, my dear chap?"
"Of something inside myself. Look here, Herman, I'm so afraid ... that I shall not be able to stick it out. That at a given moment of my life I shall be too weak. That suddenly I shall not be able to act and then, then ..."
He shuddered; they look at each other.
"It won't do," he continued, mechanically, as though strengthened by Herman's glance. "I shall fight against it, against that dread of mine.... Do you believe in presentiments?"
"Yes, inversely: mine always turn out the opposite!"