The prolonged agitation of mind had told upon him, and he was sitting now--the day before the one when he was to go in to Arendal again--alone in his house, feeling very low and depressed; it looked so dreary and empty.
Over in the window, by the leaf-table, where she generally sat to sew, stood the polished buffalo-hoof which he had brought long ago as a curiosity from Monte Video, and had since had made into a weight for her; and by the wall, under the old print of the Naiad, was the elephant, carved out of bone, which he had also had from the time when he was roaming through the world as a sailor before the mast.
He gazed at these things for a while absently, and then went in to their bedroom.
There was the chest of drawers by the wall, on which she always placed the lacquered glass which hung in the other room, when she arranged her beautiful hair.

How many a conversation they had had together as she stood there with her back to him; and what a figure she had! often answering him with merely a change of expression as she looked back at him over her shoulder.

Everything in the room had some such vivid memory to suggest; and as he sat dismally on the side of their bed, adjoining which was little Henrik's, his thoughts were occupied with many a trivial recollection of the kind, which might seem almost childish in a man of his age and character, and of such a stern, black-bearded exterior; but he was anything but stern now.
Presently his eyes ceased to wander.

He sat perfectly still.

The conviction had seized him that he could not possibly do without her; and as he looked slowly about him a great terror seemed to be taking possession of him.