Page:Pontoppidan - Emanuel, or Children of the Soil (1896).djvu/69

 night I will touch a card—I swear to you that from this day I will become another man. Do you hear, Sophie?—you may depend upon me—you must trust me this time," he went on, repeating, while his tears began to flow. "I swear to you it will all come right. And I will make up to you, Sophie, for all the bad times—for all that you have suffered for my sake—for the children's sake—for Oh, God—oh, God!"

The intoxication had come over him again. He sank on his knees by his wife's bed, and buried his head in the clothes like a child, while terrible sobs shook his heavy frame.

She lay quite still for a moment with closed eyes. Then she lifted her languid hand from the counterpane and stroked his hair—she could not help it, although she had heard the same repentant weeping hundreds of times before, and had let herself be deceived by the same solemn promises. At last her eyes filled with tears too, and clasping his head with both her hands, she pressed it to her emaciated bosom, and whispered: "My poor—poor Bernhard!"