nd carried it to the cradle. Then she went over to
Gertrude's bed.

Gertrude seized her by her hands, and drew her down to her with more
strength than one would have imagined her to have just then. The eyes of
the two women were drawn close together. "You must make him happy,
Eleanore," she said in a hoarse voice, and with a sickly glimmer in her
eyes. "If you do not, it would be better if one of us were dead."

Despite her terror, Eleanore loosened Gertrude's hold on her with great
gentleness. "It is hard to discuss that subject, Gertrude; it is hard to
live and hard to think about it all." Eleanore breathed these words into
Gertrude's ears.

"You must make him happy; you must make him happy! Repeat it to yourself
and keep it in your mind every day, every hour, every minute. You must,
you must, you must." Gertrude was almost beside herself.

"I will learn how to do it," replied Eleanore slowly and seriously. "I
am ... I hardly know what I am or how I feel. But be patient with me,
Gertrude, I will learn how to make him happy." She looked into
Gertrude's face with anxious curiosity. Gertrude however pressed her
hands against Eleanore's cheeks, drew her down to her again, and kissed
her with unusual fervour. "I too must learn how," whispered Gertrude, "I
must learn the whole of life from the very beginning."

Some one knocked at the door. The midwife came in to look after her
patient.

VII

At that time the superstition still prevailed that the window in the
room of a woman in confinement must never be opened. The air in the room
was consequently heavy and ill-smelling. Eleanore could hardly stand it
during the day; during the night she could not sleep. Moreover natural
daylight could not enter the room, and, as if it were not already gloomy
enough, the window had been hung with green curtains which were kept
half drawn.

The most unpleasant feature of all, however, was the interminable round
of visits from the women: custom had decreed that they should not be
turned away. The wife of the director of the theatre came in; Martha
Ruebsam came in, and so did the wife of Councillor Kirschner, and the
wives of the butcher, baker, preacher, and physician. And of course the
wife of the apothecary called. No one of them failed to pour out an
abundance of gratuitous advice or go into ecstasies over the beauty of
the baby. Once Daniel came in just as such an assemblage was in the sick
r