whispered in the most insinuating voice: "Let us, Harald; do say 'yes'!"
"Well, yes, dearest"
"Yes?"
"That is to say, suppose that we really were to leave to-morrow"
"Yes, yes, what then?"
"I have hardly any money, and I do not know how I, with so short a notice—I only know very few people here, the only one would be Hertz"
"No, for God's sake! Hertz! What would they say? I haven't given them a thought; how bewildered I must be!"
"Yes, there you are, and it really is an important step, which requires to be most thoroughly considered; one might suffer long for a hasty step."
The turn things had taken was rather welcome to me. I continued to speak soothingly to her, and already thought that I had got her quite away from her idea, when she suddenly said—
"Still, if we had money by us I would do it after all.… That money should have such power, it is really dreadful!"
At that moment her mother entered with a lamp, and I was struck by the expression of terror on Minna's face, perhaps exaggerated because of the sudden dazzling light. She seemed compelled to look towards the unavoidable fate, and I myself got a feeling of fear and discomfort as of impending danger, though I could not imagine that such was at hand. For, however painful it might be for poor Minna to receive Stephensen and listen to his undeserved reproaches and fruitless representations, it is the kind of thing one overcomes, and nothing in the whole affair seemed obscure to me.
