. The knowledge that
he had done nothing had ceased to reassure him. The lawyer was right
when he said that it was easier to get into such a place than to get out
again. Klutz had denounced him, to save himself; of that he had not a
doubt. And Dellwig, well known and greatly respected, had supported
Klutz. This explained Dellwig's conduct lately completely. Axel's
courage was perilously near giving way as he recognised the difficulty
he would have in proving that he was innocent. If no one helped him from
outside, his case was indeed desperate. He did not remember ever to have
turned his back on a friend in distress; how was it, then, that not a
friend was to be found to come to him in his extremity? Where were they
all, those jovial companions who shot over his estate with him so often,
driving any distance for the pleasure of killing his game? What was
keeping Gustav back? Why did he not even send a message? How was it that
Manske, who professed so much attachment to his house, besides such
stores of Christian charity, did not make an effort to reach him? He had
never asked or wanted anything of anyone in his life; but this was so
terrible, his need was so extreme. What a failure his whole life was. He
had been alone, always. During all the years when other men have wives
and children he had been working hard, alone. He had had no happy days,
as the old Romans would have said. And now total ruin was upon him.
Sitting there through the night, he began to understand the despair that
impels unhappy beings in a like situation, forsaken of God and men, to
make wild efforts to get out of such places, conscious that they avail
nothing, but at least bruising and crushing themselves into the blessed
indifference of exhaustion.

The hours dragged by, each one a lifetime, each one so packed with
opportunities for going mad, he thought, as he counted how many of them
separated him already from his free, honourable past life. By the time
morning came, added to his other torturing anxieties, was the fear lest
he should fall ill in there before any steps had been taken for his
release. He sat leaning his head against the wall, indifferent to what
went on around him, hardly listening any more for Gustav's footsteps. He
had ceased to expect him. He had ceased to expect anyone. He sat
motionless, suffering bodily now, a strange feeling in his head, his
thoughts dwelling dully on his physical discomforts, on the closeness of
the cell, o