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310 "No, no, it is so."

"I am quite willing to believe it is. . . . Yes. . . . Addie ought soon to be home again."

"And then?"

"I think . . . he will stay here."

"And Mathilde?"

"There . . . with the children."

"That is not a solution."

"No, but Addie says . . ."

"That it will have to come . . ."

"Later, of itself."

"I dare say he's right. . . . How is she?"

"Reconciled . . . more reconciled. . . . I saw her the other day."

"Don't leave her to herself."

"No, we are not doing that. . . . It's not her fault. And she is a good mother to her children."

"As you say, it's not her fault."

"Nor Addie's either. It's our fault: Henri's and mine."

"Why?"

"I don't know, I feel it is. It's all our fault. It's still the punishment dragging along."

"No, no!"

"Yes, it is. Our child was doomed not to be happy . . . because of us."

"No."

"You know quite well that you too . . . look on it like that."

"Not entirely. . . . If he had had certain understanding for himself . . ."

"He couldn't, because . . ."

"Hush! Say no more on that subject. . . . There is a knowledge . . . which is so sacred . . . Which of us has that certain understanding for himself? . . . We all just let it come. . . ."