e found him very sunburnt, more
youthful-looking and almost as slender as formerly.

They sat hand in hand in the compartment he had had reserved for
them; quite alone like two young lovers. They had an enormous amount to
say to each other--there was nothing, nothing whatever that disturbed
them. They gazed at each other very tenderly.

"How delighted I am to have you again," she said, after he had told
her a lot about his journey in a lively manner.

"And I you." He nodded to her and pressed her hand. Yes, it really
seemed to both of them as if they had been separated from each other
for an eternity. He drew her still closer, held her as tightly as
though she were a precious possession that had been half snatched away
from him, and she clung to him, leant her head on his shoulder and
smiled dreamily.

Innumerable golden atoms danced on a slender slanting sunbeam before
her half-closed eyes. The even rattling of the carriages and the calm
feeling of a great joy in her heart lulled her to sleep.

Suddenly she started up--was it a jolt, a shock? She had all at once
got a fright, as it were: she had not asked anything about the child as
yet!

"Woelfchen--what's Woelfchen doing?"

"Oh, he's all right. But now tell me, darling, how did you spend
the whole day there? How was it divided? In the morning to the
spring--first one glass, after that a second--and then? Well?"

She did not tell him. "Woelfchen is surely well?" she asked hastily.
"There must be something wrong--you say so little about him. I've had
such a misgiving the whole time. Oh dear, do tell me." Her voice
sounded almost irritable--how could Paul be so indifferent. "What's the
matter with Woelfchen?"

"The matter?" He looked at her in great surprise. "But why must
there be something the matter with him? He's as strong as a horse."

"Really? But tell me, tell me something about him."

He smiled at her impatience. "What is there to tell about such a
boy? He sleeps, eats, drinks, goes to school, comes home, runs out into
the garden, sleeps, eats, drinks again and so on, vegetates like the
plants in the sunshine. It's much better for you to tell me how you
are."

"Oh, I--I--" that seemed so superfluous to her all at
once--"I--quite well, you can see that." How indifferent he was with
regard to the child. And she--his mother--had been able to forget him
so long too? She felt so ashamed of herself that she hastily raised her
head from her husband's sh