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The husband and wife were of a literary turn of mind, and asthey had the money to cultivate their artistic tastes he wrote a little and shepainted. They also played and sang duets together, at least they had done sowhen they were first married; now they went to concerts and the opera morefrequently instead. They were liked wherever they went, they had friends, theywere called "charming people," and still something was wanting to complete theirhappiness--they had no children.
And they would probably not have any now, as they had beenmarried for some time, and the likelihood of children being born to them wasvery remote.
No doubt he sighed and knit his brow in unguarded moments whenhe sat at his desk in his office, but especially when he passed through thevillages in the Brandenburg March on the rides he took in the more distantenvirons of Berlin--partly for his health, partly because he still retained theliking for riding from the time he was in the cavalry--and saw swarms of littleflaxen-haired children romping on the sandy roads. However, he did not let hiswife perceive that he missed something, for he loved her.
But she could not control herself in the same manner. Thelonger she was married the more nervous she became. At times she felt irritatedwith her husband for no reason. She persistently turned her eyes away from the [Pg 2] announcement of births in the newspapers with a certain shrinking,and, if her glance happened once in a way to fall on one in which happy parentsnotified the birth of a son, she put the paper aside hastily.
In former yea