"And what do you do in the morning and afternoon?"
"I go out on foot or in a carriage. We make excursions. I walk a great deal when I can. I went on foot to the Roseg glacier."
"Always in company?"
"Always: I have various flirts, Doctor. One of them especially is more than a flirt. He loves me. I am fond of him and torment him with jealousy of my other flirts."
The conversation developed, calmly and coldly on the Doctor's side, brightly and mockingly, with a touch of impertinent bitterness, on Else's side. He said to her:
"Why are you doing all this? To kill yourself?"
"To die the sooner," she declared suddenly, becoming serious.
"Don't you care to live?"
"I don't care about living, sick, half alive, dying," she declared, still very serious.