Page:Karl Gjellerup - Minna, A novel - 1913.djvu/334

 information he could only supply after having her under observation for about a week, but he would then be very pleased to give it.

When, therefore, I called upon him eight days later, he stated that Minna assuredly was suffering mentally, but was not liable to go out of her mind, at any rate not if she was rightly treated and lived under the favourable conditions that an asylum would give her until she recovered her mental balance. She was in a very nervous, excited condition. But the real danger was the heart disease, the seed of which must have been sown several years back. She might grow old with the complaint, but also it might suddenly cause her death. Most of all it was necessary to avoid any agitation of mind, which he thought hitherto had constantly given nourishment to the complaint.

"Do tell me," he suddenly said, "you are a friend of her's and her husband's. Did they live happily together?"

I considered a moment whether I had the right to be candid. "No," I answered, "I almost dare say that they did not."

"There we have got it! Or anyhow the principal cause. It will no doubt be best for her not to return to him. That is to say, if it can be done without too much pain on her part, when the time comes. As far as he is concerned, he seemed to me to be reasonable enough. What do you think?"

"I am quite of your opinion."

My emotion was too strong to escape the notice of an experienced man. He smiled, and looked at me firmly with rather contracted eyes:

"But it will be a long business.… I have told her