When he came home Eleanore was suffering from premature birth pains.
Philippina greeted him with the words: "There is going to be an
increase in the family, Daniel." Whereat she burst out in a coarse
laugh.
"Shut up, you beast," cried Daniel: "How long has she been suffering?
Why didn't you get the nurse?"
"Can I leave the child here alone? Don't growl so!" replied Philippina
angrily. She went out for the nurse. In a half an hour she came back
with her: it was Frau Hadebusch.
Daniel had a disagreeable feeling. He wanted to raise some questions and
make some objections, but Frau Hadebusch's nimble tongue anticipated
him. She grinned, curtsied, rolled her eyes, and went through the entire
category of acquired mannerisms on the part of a woman of her type, and
then unloaded her life history: Her duly wedded husband had said
farewell to this vale of tears three years ago, and since then she had
been supporting, as well as she could, herself and her poor Henry, the
idiot, by hiring out as a midwife. She seemed already to have come to
an understanding with Eleanore, for when she entered the room, Eleanore
greeted her as though she were an old acquaintance.
While Daniel was alone with Eleanore for a few minutes, he asked her in
an indignant tone: "How did you ever come to get that vicious woman?"
Eleanore replied in a gentle and unsuspecting tone: "She came to me one
day, and asked to be called in when the child was born. She said she was
awfully fond of you, and that you had once lived in her house. Well, I
thought, what difference does it make who comes, so I engaged her, and
there she is."
It was only with the greatest difficulty that she finished saying what
was on her mind. Her face, white as a sheet, was pinched with an
expression of terrific pain. She reached for Daniel's hand, and held it
so tightly that he became rigid with anxiety.
When she 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.