"'Yes, of course, Martha!' I pulled myself together. Away with this sentimental self-abandon! In my limbs I once more felt the firm strength of which I was so proud. 'Listen, Robert,' said I, 'you will not set out at daybreak already.' 'Why should I not do so?' said he, setting his lips. "'Because I do not wish it!' "'All due respect to your wishes, my dear child!' replied he, with a bitter laugh, 'but they alter nothing in my resolve.' "'So you want to lose Martha for ever?' "Now I felt myself once more so strong and joyous in my _rôle_ of guardian, that I would have taken up fight with the whole world to bring these two together. Foolish, unsuspecting creature that I was! "'Have I not already lost her?' he replied, and stared into vacancy. "'What did she say to you to-day?' "'Why should I repeat it? She spoke very wisely and very staidly, as one can only speak if one has ceased to love a person.' "'And you really believe that?' I asked. "'Must I not believe it? And after all, what does it signify? Even if she had retained a remnant of her affection for me, she did well to get rid of it thoroughly on this occasion; it is better thus, for her as well as for me. I have nothing to offer her; no happiness, no joy, not even some little paltry pleasure, nothing but work, and trouble, and anxiety--from year's end to year's end. And added to that, a mother-in-law who is hostile to her, who would make her feel it keenly, that she had come with empty hands.' "I felt how my blood rushed to my face. I was ashamed, but not for Martha or myself--for I was of course just as poor as she; no, for him, that he should have to speak thus of his own mother. "'And now say yourself, my girl,' he went on, 'is she not wiser, with such prospects before her, to remain in the shelter of her warm nest, and to send me about my business, as I could never give her anything but unhappiness?' "He dishevelled his hair and ran about the room the while like a hunted animal. "'Robert,' said I, 'you are deceiving yourself.' "He stopped, looked at me and laughed out loud: 'What is it you want of me? Am I perhaps to demand a written confirmation of her refusal, before I betake myself off?' "'Robert,' I continued, without allowing myself to be put out, 'tell me candidly whether you love her?' "'Child,' he replied, 'should I be here if I did not love her?' "With his huge arms outspread he stood before me. I felt as if I must be crushed between them if they closed around me--everything danced before my eyes--I squeezed myself further into my corner. And then there came into my thoughts what I had pictured to myself now and for years before; how I would love him if I were Martha, and how I should want him to love me in return. "'See, Robert.' I said, 'taking me altogether, I am a foolish creature. But as regards love, I do know about that, not only through the poets; I have felt it in myself for a long time.' "'Do you love some one then?' he asked.