Thea came in without his hearing her. When he turned his head and saw her, he recoiled. She gave him a mocking look and began taking off her coat, without saying a word. Then Gurdweill said, in a voice that seemed to him to belong to somebody else: ‘You can go and visit him tomorrow morning, from ten to twelve, and from two to six in the afternoon.’

He hesitated a moment and added: ‘Take leave and go there tomorrow morning to feed him.’

Thea gave a short, spiteful laugh. ‘And if I don’t obey your orders, my lord and master?’

‘It’s not an order,’ he replied calmly. ‘I only wanted to remind you. The child is gravely ill, as you know, and the least negligence on our part might have serious consequences. You heard the doctor yourself.’

‘It’s my own business! I’ll go to the hospital when I feel like it. And if I don’t feel like it, I won’t go at all! Go and shut the window. The cold’s coming in.’

After doing her bidding he said, ‘In any event, I’m asking you not to forget. It isn’t a laughing matter.’

Thea, who had begun taking off her dress, paused for a moment and looked at her husband in surprise. His firm tone was completely new to her. ‘Aha!’ she said to herself. ‘So the little one’s beginning to kick, is he!’ Suddenly the whole thing seemed supremely ridiculous to her, especially since she remembered how only half an hour ago she had been making fun of this husband of hers to her new lover, and telling him how he looked after her baby, which wasn’t even his (of that she was quite sure), and how her lover had remarked that in that case her husband must be a ‘born nursemaid’, and he would recommend him for a job as soon as the opportunity arose — which had redoubled their mirth.

She burst out laughing loudly. Gurdweill’s blood rushed to his head at the sound of this reckless laughter. He was filled with such rage against her that it surprised him, since he was so used to her behaviour that at any other time he would hardly have noticed it. But he controlled himself immediately, and only said, in a trembling voice: ‘I don’t understand! What’s there to laugh about? There’s nothing funny about the situation as far as I can see.’

‘How do you know that there’s nothing to laugh about? Come here, have a cigarette! You amuse me greatly, my little man!’

Gurdweill did not respond. He went to the bed, gathered up his bedclothes, and began making his bed on the couch. Provoked by this open defiance, Thea approached him in her petticoat, put her arm around his waist, and pushed a cigarette into his mouth.