Thea buried her head in her book again without answering. Gurdweill stood up, went over to the window, drew the curtain aside, and looked out. The snow was coming down in thick flakes, giving rise to a feeling of downy silence. There was no one to be seen in the little alley below. The snow fell by itself, with nothing to disturb it, falling softly and secretly. A desire that had been with him since childhood — to wallow in the soft, deep snow — re-awoke in Gurdweill. And together with it he saw a picture of himself sinking his little body in a pile of eiderdowns heaped up on some bed. But this picture did not stem from any actual memory and, after hovering for a moment in his imagination, it immediately gave way to another scene. Gurdweill saw a broad plain covered with deep snow, and a sack full of grain or flour or salt falling onto the snow with a soft, dull thud. And not one but many sacks, innumerable sacks, falling onto the snow from above. This scene gave him inexplicable pleasure and brought a smile to his lips. At that moment two men emerged from the hotel opposite and turned in the direction of the railway station. They were walking quickly, and Gurdweill imagined that they were probably hurrying to catch a train, and that after a journey of half an hour or an hour they would get off at some silent, snow-covered village and go into their houses, where their wives and children were waiting for them, and the Christmas tree was standing in all its glory, and a tantalising smell of cooking was coming from the kitchen, and a cat was stretching lazily. A pleasant warmth seeped through Gurdweill’s body. He approached his wife and stood beside her, resting his right hand on the back of her chair. Thea gave him an enquiring look.

‘You know,’ he said, ‘I think a cat would be nice. If not a dog, then at least a cat … With a cat the room’s not so empty.’

Thea burst out laughing loudly. ‘It seems to me that you’re turning into an old maid!’

‘No,’ he stammered uncertainly, ‘I just thought … especially later on … babies like pets …’

‘What babies?!’

‘You know … later on … the baby …’