Page:Karl Gjellerup - Minna, A novel - 1913.djvu/278

 plained. "I had looked forward to her coming in these days, she might have played to me. The drawing-room door could have been left ajar, she plays so beautifully."

I hurried to get away from this dangerous subject, and told them about my uncle's letter, which called me to England much earlier than I had expected.

"Already, in the course of the month!" Hertz exclaimed. "Yes, Dresden is just like an hotel, where one comes in and the other goes out. Only such old folks as we are stick, till one fine day we are buried here. Last year the painter Hoym moved to Berlin, and Professor Grimm, who was a very learned Kantian, went to Hamburg a couple of years ago.… Well, you are young and had to start work one time or another."

"But there is one for whom that time in Dresden means a lot," Mrs. Hertz remarked.

"Yes, poor Minna" Hertz was seized by a fit of that dry cough which every now and then interrupted the conversation.

"I have not yet said anything to her, the thought of having to leave her has already made me quite desperate. I have been very doubtful whether I ought not to try to make my uncle give up this plan."

"No, no, dear Fenger," the old man said eagerly, stretching out his hand—"don't do that. Work cannot be controlled, controlled by our inclinations.… First duty, work the sooner the better. Man's love works—woman's abides."

"You must not talk so much, it strains you," Mrs. Hertz told her husband. "But it is like that, we two old ones have known it too, once upon a time.… Don't worry too much over it. Minna is a sensible girl and a faithful soul, she will also have confidence in you.… Be sure she