returned the letters. Later they
regretted it; they were unable, however, to admit this to their mother
and to write to her; for that reason all communication between them
ceased. But now and then in round about ways they heard about each
other's lives.

For five years Thorbrogger and his wife lived happily, but then she
suddenly fell ill. It was a disease whose course ran swiftly and whose
end was necessarily fatal. Her strength dwindled hourly, and one day
when the grave was no longer far away she wrote to her children.

"Dear children," she wrote, "I know that you will read this letter, for
it will not reach you until after my death. Do not be afraid, there are
no reproaches in these lines; would that I might make them bear enough
love.

"When people love, Tage and Elinor, little Elinor, the one who loves
most must always humble himself, and therefore I come to you once more,
as in my thoughts I shall come to you every hour as long as I am able.
One who is about to die, dear children, is very poor; I am very poor,
for all this beautiful world, which for so many years has been my
abundant and kindly home, is to be taken from me. My chair will stand
here empty, the door will close behind me, and never again will I set my
foot here. Therefore I look at everything with the prayer in my eye that
it shall hold me in kind memory. Therefore I come to you and beg that
you will love me with all the love which once you had for me; for
remember that not to be forgotten is the only part in the living world
which from now on is to be mine; just to be remembered, nothing more.

"I have never doubted your love; I knew very well that it was your great
love, that caused your great anger; had you loved me less, you would
have let me go more easily. And therefore I want to say to you, that
should some day it happen that a man bowed down with sorrow come to your
door to speak with you concerning me, to talk about me to relieve his
sorrow, then remember that no one has loved me as he has, and that all
the happiness which can radiate from a human heart has come from him to
me. And soon in the last great hour he will hold my hand in his when the
darkness comes, and his words will be the last I shall hear....

"Farewell, I say it here, but it is not the farewell which will be the
last to you; it I will say as late as I dare, and all my love will be
in it, and all the longings for so many, many years, and the memories
of the time when yo