'And the children ?' "'Thank God, they are very well.

They went to sleep long ago.' "I scarcely breathed, and I could not keep my jaw from trembling.
"Then it was not as I thought.

I had often before returned home with the thought that a misfortune had awaited me, but had been mistaken, and everything was going on as usual.

But now things were not going on as usual.

All that I had imagined, all that I believed to be chimeras, all really existed.