Fru Adelheid sat writing. She looked up, as he came in, and went on writing.

 

“Where is Finn?”

 

“Upstairs, I suppose ... in his room,” she answered, without looking at him.

 

He stood at the window for a moment. Then he flung himself into a chair and got up again and stood by the table at which she was sitting:

 

“Have you been with him to-day?”

 

“No.”

 

She closed her blotting-book and turned her chair so that her face was in shadow. Then she said:

 

“Finn is too much alone.”

 

[280]“Yes.”

 

He nodded and said yes again; then stood with his head bowed deep in thought.

 

“It is so quiet here,” said Fru Adelheid. “You are not happy and Finn notices it. And Hans is away....”

 

“Yes ... yes....”

 

She crossed her arms over her breast and sat silent and looked at the tip of her foot.

 

“Adelheid....”

 

Cordt drew himself erect¹:

 

“We will fill the house with gayety,” he said. “We will go and pay visits to-morrow morning ... you and Finn and I ... to old friends and new. We will have young and cheerful people here and pretty women and clever men ... lights and music.”

 

She looked up at him. He smiled and put his hand on her shoulder.

 

[281]“Yes,” she said.

 

Cordt talked about it a little and then went out hurriedly.

 

Fru Adelheid remained sitting long. The room grew dark. The lamps before the gateway² were lit and their flickering³ gleams danced on the ceiling. The fire in the hearth⁴ smouldered under the ashes. Where she sat, no light fell; her white dress shone faintly through the gloom.

 

She thought of Cordt’s smile ... he had said that to her much as though he were asking one of the people in the office to take pains in a difficult matter.

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