I may not think.

"Do you go quietly away, my dear Major; say to Edward that I consent to
the separation; that I leave it to him, to you, and to Mittler, to
settle whatever is to be done. I have no anxiety for my own future
condition; it may be what it will; it is nothing to me. I will subscribe
whatever paper is submitted to me, only he must not require me to join
actively. I cannot have to think about it, or give advice."

The Major rose to go. She stretched out her hand to him across Ottilie.
He pressed it to his lips, and whispered gently: "And for myself, may I
hope anything?"

"Do not ask me now!" replied Charlotte. "I will tell you another time.
We have not deserved to be miserable; but neither can we say that we
have deserved to be happy together."

The Major left her, and went, feeling for Charlotte to the bottom of his
heart, but not being able to be sorry for the fate of the poor child.
Such an offering seemed necessary to him for their general happiness. He
pictured Ottilie to himself with a child of her own in her arms, as the
most perfect compensation for the one of which she had deprived Edward.
He pictured himself with his own son on his knee, who should have better
right to resemble him than the one which was departed.

With such flattering hopes and fancies passing through his mind, he
returned to the hotel, and on his way back he met Edward, who had been
waiting for him the whole night through in the open air, since neither
rocket nor report of cannon would bring him news of the successful issue
of his undertaking. He had already heard of the misfortune; and he too,
instead of being sorry for the poor creature, regarded what had befallen
it, without being exactly ready to confess it to himself, as a
convenient accident, through which the only impediment in the way of his
happiness was at once removed.

The Major at once informed him of his wife's resolution, and he
therefore easily allowed himself to be prevailed upon to return again
with him to the village, and from thence to go for a while to the little
town, where they would consider what was next to be done, and make their
arrangements.

After the Major had left her, Charlotte sat on, buried in her own
reflections; but it was only for a few minutes. Ottilie suddenly raised
herself from her lap, and looked full with her large eyes in her
friend's face. Then she got up from off the ground, and stood upright
before her.

"This is the second