Before going to bed, Eleanore wrote a letter to Herr Zittel informing
him that she was leaving the Prudentia at once.
Lying in bed, she could not sleep. She saw herself on the ice cutting
bold and novel figures. The spectators, grouped about her in a wide
circle, admired her skill. She saw the sea with fishing smacks and
coloured sails. She saw gardens full of roses.
Her father and Benno had come home long ago. She heard the bell up in
the nearby church tower strike twelve--and then one--and then two.
She heard some one walking back and forth in the house; she heard some
one opening and closing a door. Then the steps died away, and all was
quiet. She got up, went to the door, and listened. A deep sigh reached
her ear from the next room. She opened the door just a little, without
making the slightest noise, and peeped out through the crack.
Gertrude was standing by the open window; she was in her night-gown and
bare feet. The moon was shining on the square in front of the house; the
glitter of the snow on the roofs made it seem quite cold. The spooky
illumination made the girl's face look spooky. Her loose flowing hair
looked as black as ebony.
Eleanore ran into the room, and closed the window. "What on earth are
you doing, Gertrude?" she exclaimed; "are you getting ready to take your
life?"
Gertrude's slender body shivered in the cold; her toes were all bent in
as if she were having a convulsion. "Yes," she said with marked
moroseness, "that is what I would like to do."
"That's what you would like to do?" replied Eleanore, also trembling
with cold. "And your father? Haven't you the slightest consideration for
him? Do you want to give him more worry than he already has? What is
the matter with you, you crazy girl?"
"I am a sinner, Eleanore," cried Gertrude, fell on her knees, and
clasped Eleanore about the hips. "I am a sinner."
"Yes? A sinner? What sin, pray, have you committed?" asked Eleanore, and
bent down over her.
"Why am I in that house there, in that prison?" cried Gertrude, and
clasped her hands to her breast. "Evil has come over me, evil has taken
possession of me. I have evil thoughts. Look at me, Eleanore, look at
me!"
Her voice had now mounted to the pitch of a piercing shriek. Eleanore
stepped back from her, terror-stricken. Gertrude fell head first on the
floor. Her hair covered her bent and twitching back.
The door leading to Jordan's room opened, and he himself came in
carrying a lighted candle. In default of pajamas, he had thrown a
chequered shawl around his shoulders, the fringes of which were dangling
about his knees. He had a white-peaked night-cap on his head.
Quite beside himself, he looked at the two girls and wanted to say
something; but he was speechless. When much worried he would always
smirk. It was a disagreeable habit. In Eleanore it always aroused a
feeling of intense compassion. "There is nothing wrong, father," she
stammered, and made an awkward gesture which indicated to him that it
would be most agreeable to her if he would go away. "Gertrude has pains
in her stomach; she tried to go to the medicine chest to get a few
drops. Please go, father; I'll put her to bed."
"I will go to the doctor, or I will call Benno and have him go," said
Jordan.
"No, father, it is not necessary. Please go away!"
He appreciated Eleanore's impatience and obediently withdrew, shielding
the light of the candle with his hand; his gigantic shadow followed
along behind him like some unclassified animal.
"Get up, Gertrude, get up and come with me!" said Eleanore.
Gertrude was taken back to her room. After she had been in bed for a few
minutes, there was a knock at the door. It was Jordan; he asked how she
felt. Eleanore told him everything was all right.
Until the moon had disappeared below the church roof, Eleanore sat on
Gertrude's bed, and held her mute hand in her own. Though she had thrown
a cloak about her shoulders, she was cold. Gertrude lay with open,
lifeless eyes. Every movement of Eleanore's face revealed the changing
moods of her soul: she was thinking over an unending series of grave
thoughts. When it became quite dark, Gertrude turned her face to
Eleanore, and said softly: "Please get in bed with me, Eleanore. If I
see you sleeping, possibly I can sleep too."
Eleanore laid the cloak to one side, and slipped in under the covers.
The two girls cuddled up to each other, and in a few minutes both were
sound asleep.