Page:Karl Gjellerup - Minna, A novel - 1913.djvu/155

 "Ah well! It might well touch me, as it was so different from what I experienced in my own home."

"Aren't you fond of Immanuel? He really is such a nice fellow."

"Yes, indeed—very nice"

It struck me that she had never much to say about Hertz's son, and it also surprised me that he had never spoken to me about Minna, and that I had never seen her when I had visited him. Very likely in those days she had come less frequently, or at fixed hours of the day. As a matter of fact it was only in the last part of the year, before he left for Leipzig, that our acquaintance had grown so intimate.

I would willingly have continued this subject, but Minna had already put it on one side.

"By the way, when you come to town you will call to see mother—I have written to her. And listen—do not judge her too harshly."

"But, dearest girl, how can you fear"

"Well, well, I have not myself raised your expectations too highly. But there is any amount of good in her; truly she does not of her own free will harm anybody, and she is so fond of me—she really is."

"The last is enough for me."

"Do you know, Harald, there is one thing which pleases me."

"Well?"

"But you must not be so delighted, it is not at all nice of me, but very selfish. Do you know, I am so pleased that you have no parents alive."

"Oh, why? They would have been so fond of you."

"No, no," she exclaimed, in an almost frightened tone.