Gurdweill started off towards the box. On the way, both her legs fell off, one after the other. Gurdweill heard them fall with a pang but without being able to pick them up, and when he finally reached the box, there was nothing left of her but her head and torso, which did not show any marks in the places where her limbs had broken off. She looked like one of those round, limbless dolls, which jump up again when you push them down. He put her in the box. Loath to leave her arms and legs lying scattered in the street, he went back to pick them up. But the limbs were nowhere to be found. They had disappeared without a trace. Gurdweill searched everywhere in growing despair. He knew that she did not have any spare limbs at home, and she had only said so to save him unnecessary trouble. And what was he to do now? He couldn’t leave things like this! Suddenly he remembered that the girl was already drowned — in other words, dead — and she really didn’t need any arms and legs … And besides, he was sure that Thea must have picked them up, when she came out of the cinema, and hidden them somewhere to tease him … He would find them later!

When he returned to the box, he found the nurse from the hospital there. She was no longer stout, but tall and erect, and although she looked like Thea, Gurdweill knew that she was not Thea but the nurse. At the same time, it occurred to him that in dreams one figure is often substituted for another, in a kind of sleight-of-hand, and this discovery filled him with happiness, because he knew that it was now of the utmost importance for him to be on his guard and alert to everything that happened. In the meantime darkness had descended. The box and the nurse at its side were illuminated by the light of a nearby streetlamp. The nurse suddenly held out a little bundle, which Gurdweill had not previously noticed in her hand. The little bundle was wrapped in a snow-white blanket (he recognised it immediately as Martin’s), and she seemed very angry and in a great hurry. For a moment he wondered whether to take the bundle from her or not. But the nurse said angrily, and now it was clear to him that she really was Thea: ‘Take it, you fool, and put it in the box! Can’t you see that it’s Martin?’ But Gurdweill could not see anything, because the baby was completely wrapped up in the blanket. ‘It’s a good thing that he’s so well wrapped up,’ he thought, ‘otherwise he might catch cold.’

He took the bundle and said: ‘Why in the box? If it’s Martin, he’s got a nice carriage of his own! There’s already someone lying in the box.’