Lotte put her cup down. Her grey eyes were suddenly overcast with a sadness that was not lost on Gurdweill. ‘She must have remembered something sad,’ he said to himself, and sensed a faint melancholy welling up in him too. And suddenly something wonderful happened to him: he saw a vision, a kind of daydream, which lasted no more than three or four minutes, but which was so vivid in all its details that its reality could not be denied. He saw her, Lotte, as a little girl, with her auburn hair curling wildly around her head. She was wearing a light, knee-length, pure white dress, for it was summer, perhaps a summer afternoon. She was standing all alone in a broad, grassy meadow. Then she took a few hesitant steps, changed her mind, and stood still again. She raised her hand to shade her eyes against the sun, and gazed intently into the distance. After a moment a man, much taller than her and wearing a straw hat, appeared and approached her from the side (Gurdweill only saw him when he was right next to her), bent down, and said something to her. Lotte turned to face him, examined him from top to toe, and took a step away from him. But the man stretched out both his hands, as if to embrace her, and his cane fell to the ground. Lotte began to run, to run as fast as she could, her hair waving in the wind. At first the man made a movement as if to pursue her. But he immediately changed his mind and bent down to pick up his stick, which he brandished in the air as he stood and watched her flee. Lotte was already far away from the man, but she went on running through the meadow without looking behind her. Suddenly she stumbled and fell. She tried to get up, but was unable to do so. She remained on the ground, lying on her side, her face distorted with pain and tears. The man, who had seen her fall from where he stood, ran up to her, picked her up, and carried her for some distance until he reached a house, which he entered through a green latticed gate. Afterwards Gurdweill saw Lotte lying in bed, her face pale and her eyes closed, with a number of people standing around her, among them the man who had brought her there. And here the vision ended.

‘Did you ever fall as a child and have to stay in bed afterwards?’

‘Yes. As a matter of fact, I was just thinking about it. How did you know?’

‘I just saw it. And who was the man in the straw hat who carried you home?’

Lotte stared at him, petrified. ‘But how do you know? I never told you about it.’