Thea laughed and said: ‘The carriage’s gone! I sold it to Dr Ostwald yesterday for the baby about to be born … From now on he’s going to have a new baby every month, and he needs a lot of carriages …’ And she went on laughing wildly.

Gurdweill was filled with such terrible rage that he thought he would die. ‘How could you do such a thing? How could you sell it? You know the baby’s only got one carriage and he needs it for himself!’

‘He doesn’t need it anymore.’ Thea laughed venomously. ‘Can’t you see that he’s dead? A dead baby doesn’t sleep in a carriage, but in a box! Didn’t I keep on telling you that I don’t need a baby? I’ve been wanting to kill him for a long time … In the end I gave him to Freddy. What an expert! With one finger down his throat he finished him off … Hurry up and put him in the box! There’s no time to waste!’

Hoping against hope that Thea was joking as usual, Gurdweill undid the bundle. Martin was dead. His eyes were open, and he was smiling his babyish smile, with his tiny fist next to his mouth — but he was dead nevertheless. Gurdweill knew this now with absolute certainty. He was filled with despair, and a terrible rage against Thea, who was to blame for everything — a rage deeper and more painful than any he had ever experienced awake. He threw the baby down and leaped on Thea and began hitting her with his fists, on her face, her breasts, her belly. But he quickly realised that his fists were encountering no resistance, just as if he were hitting thin air, and he was frightened to death. He stopped. Thea went on standing in front of him and laughing. Then she suddenly took off her hat, saying: ‘So, my little man! You think you can hit me, do you?’ And she seized hold of his throat with both hands and began to throttle him. Gurdweill screamed with all his might (there were already people standing round them) but his voice was inaudible and the screams remained stuck in his mouth. ‘This is the end,’ he thought, ‘nothing can save me now!’ And he felt an amazing pressure on his heart, which was not at all unpleasant, and he stopped breathing …