"Elly?"
"Yes."
"My God!"
"Why, Father? It's her vocation. She feels that she must obey it; and it is fine of her to do so.... She and I discussed it at length. I did not think it my duty to oppose her. I went with her to the Russian minister. I helped her with all her preparations. She is very strong and very plucky; and she has become even pluckier than she used to be.... She used to nurse the sick poor once, you know.... Father, I saw her at Florence: a little boy of six was run over by a motor-car. She took him up in her arms, put him in a cab and drove with him to a doctor ... whereas I almost fainted!... Whether she will stay with the Red Cross I can't tell; but I am convinced that, as long as she does, she will devote herself with all her might and main.... You see, she's like that, Father; it's the tendency, the line of her life.... Each of us has a different line. Getting married and trying to draw two lines into one by a legal foot-rule is all nonsense. Aldo and Ottilie are right.... But, though Elly and I are married according to the legal foot-rule ... she is free. Only, I ..."
He paused and then went on:
"I suffered, when she went away ... for who knows how long.... I am so intensely fond of her ... and I miss her, now that she has been mine."
"The damned baggage!" cried Pauws.
Lot took his father's hand:
"Don't say that, Father...."
"Those damned women!" cried Pauws. "They're all ... they're all ..."