how is it with Amalie?" The answer was that she was in
a raging fever.

"But what happened this forenoon while I was absent?"

Stina knew nothing. She did not even understand his question. She was
not the one who had attended Fru Atlung in the forenoon; she had watched
in the night, and then the patient's fever fancies were happy ones, as
they had again become. Had the doctor been with her in the forenoon?
No, he was expected now. He had said yesterday that to-day he would not
come until later than usual. This indicated a feeling of security on the
doctor's part.

Had Fru Atlung spoken with any one else? If so it must be the
sick-nurse. "Bring her here!" Stina left the room. Atlung also sent away
the others who had assembled around him, he needed to collect his
thoughts. He sat up, with his head between his hands, and before he knew
it he was weeping aloud. He heard his own sobs resounding through the
large room and he shuddered. He felt sure; oh, he felt but too sure,
that he would sit here alone and hear this wail of misery for weeks. And
in this sense of boundless bereavement, her image stood forth
distinctly: she came from her bed in her white garment and told him word
for word what she had meant. Her prayer to God had been to be allowed to
keep her boys, and now this had been granted in a terrible way for she
was to have them with her in death. It was this which had paralyzed her.
And the beloved one repeated: "I did not mean it thus, I would not take
them from--you."

But how had this idea suddenly occurred to her? _Why_ was her security
transformed into something so terrible?

The sick-nurse knew nothing. Toward morning the dear lady had fallen
into a slumber, and this had gradually become more and more calm. When
she awoke rather late in the morning, she lay still a little while
before she was waited on. She was excessively weak; the housekeeper
helped care for her. Not a word was said to her about her condition, not
a single word. She had not spoken herself, except once; it was after she
had had a little broth, then she said: "Oh, no, never mind!" She lay
back and closed her eyes. Her attendants urged her to take some more;
but she made no reply. They stood a little and waited; then they left
her in peace.

As the evening wore on, the fever increased; by the doctor's advice she
was carried into the next room. She understood this to mean that she was
being borne into Paradise, and while they were moving