"No, Ernst, no one wants to force you. But it would be a good thing if you went to Nunspeet."
"But why? I'm all right here."
"You would be among kind people ... who will be fond of you."
"No one has ever been fond of me," he said.
"Ernst!" she cried, with a sob.
"No one has ever been fond of me," he repeated, bluntly. "Not Mamma ... nor any of you ... not one. If I had not had all of them ... oh, if I had not had all of them! My darlings, my darlings! Oh, what can be the matter with them? Now they're waking up! Now they're awake! Oh, listen to them moaning! Oh dear, listen to them screaming! They're screaming, they're yelling! ... Is it purgatory? Oh, dear, how they're crowding round me! They're stifling me, they're stifling me!... Oh dear, it's more than I can bear!"
He rushed to the open window; and she was afraid that he wanted to throw himself out, so that she caught him round the body with both her arms. The old doctor came in. He shut the window.
"I can do nothing," she murmured to the old man, in despair.
"Yes, you can," said the doctor, calmly. "Yes, you can, mevrouw."
"You are all of you my enemies," said Ernst. "My enemies and theirs."