The cigarette hit him in the face and fell on the floor. Gurdweill picked it up, lit it, and lay back again.

‘We’re going to Baron von Takow’s for lunch!’ announced Thea. ‘Excellent!’

If only she was always like this, he thought, his happiness would be complete! He discovered to his delight that he was not in the least tired, despite his lack of sleep.

‘Well, what about breakfast?’

He got up, dressed quickly, and hurried to the kitchen, without washing first, to make the coffee.

After a while he came back with boiling-hot coffee, bread and butter, and the sprats left over from the day before, and served his wife breakfast in bed. Thea ate voraciously, as if after a hard day’s work, to the delight of her husband, who kept glancing at her from the table, where he was taking his own meal.

‘You must eat a lot, dearest; don’t forget you’re eating for two now.’

Thea did not hear, or pretended not to hear. When he went up to her bed afterwards to take away the tray, he bent over her with sudden fervour and pressed his lips to her hand. ‘The hand that hit,’ he thought, and felt an indescribable pleasure. Thea pulled her hand away, giving her husband a look full of contempt and disgust as she did so — a look that escaped his notice. After carrying the tray to the table he approached his wife again. His face was radiant with joy.

‘You don’t know how m-much …’ he stammered with downcast eyes, ‘how m-much you mean to me … I would be prepared to take anything from you … that is … just don’t harm the …’

With an impatient gesture Thea pushed him away. ‘Stop it, I want to get up!’ and she jumped out of bed. Submissively Gurdweill sat next to the table and watched his naked wife washing from a distance.

‘No,’ he thought sadly, ‘I can’t win her heart, whatever I do.’ He saw the milky light flowing through the windows into the cold, untidy room and his sadness grew even more profound.

When Thea turned as she sponged herself, and his eyes fell on her belly, it seemed to him that it was a little more curved than before, and this immediately gave him back his equanimity. Thea, as if she had read his thoughts, said, ‘Father doesn’t know yet. Don’t say anything, you hear? It’s my business!’

‘Will you tell him today? He’ll be very happy.’

‘Not yet!’ She smiled spitefully. ‘If I decide to keep it, I’ll tell him in my own good time. And you, don’t interfere!’