His thoughts were still chiefly with them as he looked up at her when he had done and had written down the result, but there was room in them also for a slight wonder that she should be there. She had not penetrated into his laboratory for years. She had been tamed, after a period of recurring insurrections, into respect for its sanctity. But he did not mind being interrupted on this occasion; on the contrary, as soon as he had fully returned to consciousness he was pleased. There was a large warmth pervading Herr Dremmel that afternoon which made him inclined not to mind anything. "Well, Little One?" he said. Immediately she began to deliver what sounded like a speech. He gazed at her in astonishment. She appeared to be in a condition of extreme excitement; she was addressing him rapidly in a trembling voice; she was much flushed, and was holding on to the edge of the table. It was so sudden and so headlong that it was like nothing so much as the gushing forth of the long corked-up contents of an over-full bottle, and he gazed at her in an astonishment that did not for some time permit him to gather the drift of what she was saying. When he did she had already got to the word Ruins. "Ruins?" repeated Herr Dremmel. "Ruins, ruins. It _must_ stop--it _can't_ go on. Oh, I saw it so clearly the last part of the time in Zoppot. I suppose it was the sea wind blew me clear. Our existence, Robert, our decently happy existence in a decently happy home with properly cared-for children--" "But," interrupted Herr Dremmel, raising his hand, "one moment--what is it that must stop?" "Oh, don't you see all that will be in ruins about us--but in _ruins_, Robert--all our happy life--if I go on in this--in this wild career of--of unbridled motherhood?" Herr Dremmel stared. "Unbridled--?" he began; then he repeated, so deep was his astonishment, "Wild career of--Ingeborg, did you say unbridled motherhood?" "Yes," said Ingeborg, pressing her hands together, evidently extraordinarily agitated. "I learned that by heart at Zoppot, on purpose to say to you. I knew if I didn't directly I got into this room I'd forget everything I meant to say. I know it sounds ridiculous, the way I say it--" "Unbridled motherhood?" repeated Herr Dremmel. "But--are you not a pastor's wife?" "Oh, yes, yes--I know, I know. I know there's Duty and Providence, but there's me, too--there is me, too. And, Robert, won't you see? We shall be happy again if I'm well, we shall be two real people instead of just one person and a bit of one--you and a battered thing on a sofa--" "Ingeborg, you call a wife and a mother engaged in carrying out her obligations a battered thing on a sofa?"