Читать книгу The Old Room онлайн

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He pulled the spinning-wheel right in front of her and placed it as if she were to use it then and there. Then he sat down in his chair again.

“Don’t you think you could, Adelheid?”

They looked hard at each other. Then they became timid and shy and dropped their eyes.

They both thought of holding out their hands, but neither could see the other’s. They longed to throw themselves into each other’s arms, but they sat as stiff as statues. Their lips trembled; but they did not look at each other and neither knew anything of the other’s thought.

“I am thinking how very small we look in these big chairs,” he said, at last.

His voice was calm and she grew quite calm at once. It was all over; there was peace in their souls. It was not a reconciliation, for they remembered no quarrel. Their glances rested confidently upon each other.

There was nothing between them and they were friends.

“I wonder if we are inferior to those who sat here before us,” she said. “Different, yes; but inferior?”

They both rose.