-room, Herr
Sperber carrying one of the large candles with him. "Now tell me,
child, how all this has happened!" She knelt in front of the little old
man, who sat, full of care, in Herr Rauchfuss's armchair; and again the
hot tears flowed. "Do you remember the night when your father lay
dying, and we sat here and waited for him to draw his last breath--eh,
child?" The girl nodded. "Do you know that Herr Kosch shows a decided
inclination to take to drinking?" She nodded again, her eyes staring
straight before her, full of pain. "And in spite of that ...? Tell me,
is it absolutely necessary for a woman to be entirely without reason?
Do you think you could stop him if he made up his mind to be a
drunkard!"

"No," she said.

"Then what did you mean, my girl, by what you said just now? You want
to be alive as he is alive? And you want him to be your friend? What
did it mean? Look, I'll set the thing all straight for you. You must
know your mother was just such another overstrained little soul,
good and dear as she was. Look at my old woman, look at the old
Kummerfelden. All women of the better sort have had their little
whimsies when they were young. But you see, women learn to think in
another fashion from men. Men come to it sooner--people teach them the
trick. You see, I'm telling you the thing just as I see it ... They
go to school longer; they learn their trade; they've got to play a
part in the world. Of course a good deal of it is put upon them
artificially--it doesn't always come to them naturally; but it's got to
come. One generation tells the next what it has thought. Like an
irresistible avalanche the whole heap of thoughts, whatever has been
thought, comes down on us men. Or, if you'll understand me better, we
get all our food ready chewed up for us.

"Now women learn to think in quite a different way. When they're
very young, life leaves them quiet, doesn't put too much of a strain on
them. But when the time comes, life itself teaches them to think. The
avalanche of thoughts doesn't come down on them, nor do they get their
food ready chewed. Out of their own nature grow the thoughts, and
understanding of life. Look at my old woman and the Kummerfelden.
I take my hat off to those two good old souls! They think simply
about everything; but what they think is nothing foreign, nothing
learned--it is their own, their hard-won property. We men are seldom so
natural, so penetrated by our convictions, so simple. We