Part 50 (1/2)
”I'm not cold.”
”What are you so nervous about?”
”I don't know....”
”Your nerves have been all wrong for some time.... You often cry ...
about nothing.”
”Yes. I don't know why.... It's nothing.... It's the weather....”
”Yes ... our Dutch climate.... Now at last it's something like winter.
It's freezing like anything. The snow is crisp underfoot.”
She slipped again. He held her up and they walked close together, in the driving snow, which blinded them....
”I must say, it's absurd of Mamma ... to send us out in this weather....”
She did not answer: she understood that he thought it absurd. The cold took her breath away; and it seemed to her, as she kept on slipping, that they would never reach the Bankastraat.... At last they turned the corner of the Na.s.sauplein. And she calculated: not quite ten minutes more; then a moment with Gerrit and Adeline; the cab would fetch them there; then back to Mamma's with Addie ... to set Mamma's mind at ease.
And, as she reckoned it out, she grew calmer and thought, with Henri, that it was certainly rather absurd of Mamma. She planted her feet more firmly; she was now walking more briskly, still holding her husband's arm.... Was it the cold or what, that made her keep on trembling with an icy s.h.i.+ver?... Now, at last, they were nearing the Bankastraat and Gerrit's house; and it seemed to her as if she had been walking the whole evening through the thick, crisp snow. Suddenly, she stopped:
”Henri,” she stammered.
”What?”
”I ... I daren't....”
”What daren't you?”
”I daren't ring.”
”Why not?”
”I daren't go in.”
”But what's the matter with you?”
”Nothing.... I'm frightened. I daren't.”
”But, Constance....”
”Henri, I'm trembling all over!...”
”Are you feeling ill?”
”No ... I'm frightened....”
”Come, Constance, what are you frightened of? Now that we're there, we may as well ring. What else would you do?... Here's the house.”
He rang the bell.... They waited; no one came to the door; and the snow beat in their faces.