"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. . . ."
