e began to groan, Daniel turned away and pressed his fists
together. Frau Hadebusch came in with a tub of hot water: "This is no
place for men," she exclaimed with a kindly twisting of her face, took
Daniel by the shoulder, and pushed him out the door.

Little Agnes was standing in the hall. "Father," she said.

"Put that child to bed!" said Daniel, turning to Philippina.

Jordan came out of the kitchen. He held an earthen bowl of soup in his
hand. It had been saved for him, and all he had to do was to hold it
over the fire and heat it up. He went up to Daniel, and said, as his
chin quivered: "May God protect her, and be merciful to her!"

"Quit that kind of talk, Father," said Daniel impatiently. "God rules
with reservations that make me insane."

"Won't you say good-night to little Agnes?" asked Philippina in a rude,
rough tone from the other room.

He went in; the child looked at him timidly. The more it grew, the
greater his own shyness became in its presence. And the constant
association of Eleanore with the child had always been a source of worry
to him. There was one thing of which he was mortally certain: he could
not see Eleanore in bodily form and precisely as she was, when Agnes,
with her Gertrude eyes and her arched Eleanore mouth, was present in the
room with Eleanore. He felt that Eleanore had been transformed into the
sister of Agnes, that she was still only a sister. And this he felt was
something fatal.

Both of the sisters looked at him out of Agnes's big childish eyes; in
her they were both melted and moulded into a single being. A presageful
horror crept over him. Sisters! The word had a solemn sound in his ears;
it seemed full of mysterious meaning; it took on mythical greatness.

"Sleep, baby, sleep, outside are two sheep, a black one and a white
one ..." sang Philippina in her imbecile way. It was astonishing the
amount of malevolence there was in her sing-song.

Daniel could not stand it in the house; he went out on the street, and
wandered around until midnight. If he made up his mind to go home, the
thought occurred to him at once that Frau Hadebusch would prevent him
from going into Eleanore's room. He felt like lying down on the pavement
and waiting until some one came and told him how Eleanore was getting
along.

XVIII

It struck one just as he came home. The maid from the first floor and
the maid from the second were standing on the stairs. The