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304 I were on a journey. They are so small: oh, I hope that they won't miss me and that, when they do see me again, they will know me! . . . So you will be alone. . . with the children. . . It may be that you will want me back then, that the former love will return. . . . In my case too, perhaps. . . . We shall see. It will. . . it will all come of itself and we. . . we know nothing. . . . Perhaps, in years to come, we shall be living quietly together again. . . with the children. Or else. . ."

"What?"

"Or else you will be far away from me . . . and will have found your happiness with another."

She put her hands before her eyes:

"I don't see it. . . . I don't know. . . ."

"Now you are being honest. No, you don't know if you will come to care so much as that for Johan. . . . And I . . . I will be honest too! I don't know if I shall ever care for you again. . . . But we must wait, Tilly; and the best thing therefore is to leave each other and . . . and not to talk to each other again until it has come of itself and until we know. . . . You will not be alone in the world; for, if ever I can do anything for you, I will come to you. I shall never forget you."

"Yes, perhaps that will be best," she said, in a dead voice. "I shall try to look at it like that . . . and to live alone . . . with the children. I shall not see Johan again."

"No, no, on the contrary: you must see him."

"Why?"

"So as to know. You will never be weak."

"No, I shall never be that."

"You know how he feels towards you."

"How do you know?"

"I know you do. . . . You know what he feels