It was merely a time of waiting, which
somehow or other had to be endured, for all three mentally asked
themselves: And what then? They felt no solid foundation in their
lives; there was no ground to build upon before this, which had
separated them, was settled.
Every day that passed the children forgot more and more what their
mother had meant to them, in the fashion in which children who believe
themselves wronged will forget a thousand benefactions for the sake of
one injustice.
Tage was the most sensitive of them, but also the one who was hurt
most deeply, because he had loved most. He had wept through long
nights because of his mother whom he could not retain in the way in
which he wanted. There were times when the memory of her love almost
deafened all other feelings in his heart. One day he even went to her
and beseeched and implored her that she might belong to them, to them
alone, and not to any other one, and the answer had been a "no." And
this "no" had made him hard and cold. At first he had been afraid of
this coldness, because it was accompanied by a frightful emptiness.
The case with Elinor was different. In a strange way she had felt that
it was an injustice toward her father, and she began to worship him
like a fetish. Even though she but dimly remembered him, she recreated
him for herself in most vivid fashion by becoming absorbed in
everything she had ever heard about him. She asked Kastager about him
and Tage, and every morning and night she kissed a medallion-portrait
of his which belonged to her.
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