a long time offers you more than enough to think of.… With regard to myself, I have always wished that I should be the one to close my husband's eyes. Should I die before him, the thought would trouble me dreadfully that he would be left alone for his last years. It is so much worse for an old man who all his days has been accustomed to be cared for and looked after—we women know better how to take care of ourselves. Then I also have Immanuel, thank goodness!"
"It is a loving and beautiful thought of yours, Mrs. Hertz, but surely you will both still live many years, and your wish may all the same be fulfilled."
"Perhaps. Will Minna soon return?"
"I don't know."
"Have you not had a letter yet?"
I became very confused, and thought that my embarrassment must reveal to her that there was something amiss. But she laughed.
"It's true she has only been away two days, so I suppose it was too much to expect. Perhaps she knows from you how Hertz was when you were here last?"
"No … I … really have not yet written."
"How is that? It is not like you, Fenger."
The old lady looked at me as if she suddenly suspected that there was something odd about this journey; and, had not her own grief so completely occupied her mind, my agitation must have betrayed me, and she would have compelled me to tell her everything. But now the womanly instinct was unfortunately blunted; she at once forgot her former thoughts, looked past me, and sighed.
"I am going to write to-night; I postponed it until I
