'No!'
'It appeared to me, though, that you were reading one when I came in.'
'The letter I was reading is six years old,' said Krusé.
'Indeed! And at such a length of time after its date does it retain sufficient interest to carry it with you to your tent and read it on such an evening as this?'
'It is the memento of a loss--of a death; and you know, general, that the heart does not value its memories by their age, but by the estimation in which we hold those to whom they are traceable.'
'No,' said the general, 'I am not aware of any such feeling, for I have no souvenirs, no cherished remembrances.'
Krusé looked up in amazement at the bitter and almost despairing meaning which lay in these words. Gregers continued:
'I came to ask you to visit me this evening. There is a subject on which I wish to have some conversation with you. Have you time to spare?'
'Yes, general.'
'Very well, come then to me in my tent, near the forest of firs, within an hour--not later, pray observe.'