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Rh "Now I am. But it took so long . . . that I had to get old first. I'm old now and it's all right now. . . . Look, look: the clouds are drifting along. . . . That means storm . . ."

"For days on end."

"Oh, I am yearning for Addie! . . . How long is it since we saw him? Three months, isn't it? . . . Three months! What an age! . . . We are all yearning for him. . . ."

"His father is counting the days till he returns. . . . Poor Hans!"

"Poor Henri! . . . Even Mamma was asking the other day, where Addie was."

"She always knows him."

"Ernst and Paul can't get on without him."

"And he has an excellent influence on Alex: the boy's doing very well."

"Yes, he's grown so calm and manly . . . latterly."

"Guy's letters are satisfactory, are they not?"

"Yes. It's kind of you, Brauws, to take so much interest . . . in all of us."

"Well, I'm living . . . with you all."

"You belong to us."

"It is like one family."

"Family. . . . Yes, there is such a thing as family. In the old days, I often used to think that it was just a word."

"No, it's there, only . . ."

"Yes, I understand what you mean. . . . Sometimes it does not begin to take shape until we ourselves are no longer young. . . . It was there for Mamma, whereas for us, at that time . . . But for Mamma it was an illusion and . . ."

"For us . . . it is indeed a reality . . ."

"In so far that we think so . . . we old people."