"Ssh!" he said. "They're asleep. Don't speak too loud."
"No. But I may talk quietly, mayn't I, Ernst?... Can't you get up from your chair? For there's no room there to sit beside you. Come, dear, won't you get up?"
And she smiled and held out both her hands to him.
He smiled back and said:
"Ssh! Don't wake them."
"No, no. But do get up."
He gave way at last and, grasping her hands warily, allowed her to pull him up, out of his corner, and once more said, earnestly:
"You must promise me not to wake them. All my visitors wake them, the brutes! The doctor woke them too."
"No, Ernst, we'll let them sleep. There, it's nice of you to have got up. Shall we sit down here?"
"Yes. Why have you come? You never come to see me...."