"So you are going away?" she asked tensely.

The word had escaped him, he scarcely knew how. Now that he had
uttered it, however, he saw very clearly that nothing better remained
for him to do than to carry the casual thought into action.... Here he
passed a fruitless, enervating life, slothful, restless and
humiliating; at home there awaited him light, useful work, dreamless
sleep, and the tonic sense of being the master.

All that, in other days, held him in Berlin, namely, this modest,
clever, flexible woman had almost passed from his life. Steady neglect
had done its work. If he went now, scarcely the smallest gap would be
torn into the fabric of his life.

Or did it only seem so? Was she more deeply rooted in his heart than
he had ever confessed even to himself? They were both silent. She
stood very near him and sought to read the answer to her question in
his eyes. A kind of anxious joy appeared upon her slightly
worn features.

"I'm needed at home," he said at last. "It is high time for me. If you
desire I'll look after your affairs too."

"Mine? Where?"

"Well, I thought we were neighbours there--more than here. Or have you
forgotten the estate?"

"Let us leave aside the matter of being neighbours," she answered,
"and I don't suppose that I have much voice in the management of the