Boxing Day was called time on the business.

– Well, do you hear, he said, without sitting down, Mom and Dad ask, if you do not want to come to us at six o’clock in the evening, unless you have something else for you?

– Thanks, said Stellan, but I do not I a in the mood. I do not feel happy and I will just ruin the joy for others …

Charlie looked at him a moment, shyly and quickly:

– What the hell is the matter with you?

– I do not know. It’s nothing. I am just not happy.

Donald stood for a moment and looked again at the books.

– Oh you dear? he asked finally.

Stellan straightened up for the insult:

– In Love! Who I’d fall in love huh?

– I do not know! But I just thought it. And then I would have given you some advice. Fuck that! There are other girls than in this little cave!

Stellan shook his head:

– No, I’m not in love.

Donald went. Stellan started walking to and fro in his room. He would have liked to weep over the hard fate which rested on him. He thought of his mother. If she had lived? … But he shook his head. What would have been able to change anything? How would the fact that his mother was still alive could have prevented him from dedicating his life to the highest problems? No, he realized that now. He was even grateful to Providence, which allowed her to go away. How could she not have grieved to see him in this melancholy and sad! And how desperate she would not have been more than feeling unable to comfort him, to see he stands helpless before the fate which rested on him. No, it was better that she was resting in his grave! Thousand times better!