His father, too, began to ask questions, evidently urged on by the mother.  He spoke sternly, but not unkindly, when he asked if Keith had been doing anything he ought not to do.  And naturally enough Keith answered emphatically no.

In this way the mystery came closer and closer to him, and became more and more urgent.  His mother’s futile efforts at communicating what apparently rested heavily on her heart made him ill at ease, but he remained unconscious of any guilt or fear.  A conflict of serious aspect and proportions was undoubtedly taking shape within him, but so far it was mainly concerned with the school and his friendship for Murray and a general sense of dissatisfaction with the life he was leading.  It was above all a sense of things missed.

Then he happened one afternoon, when his mother was out, to be delving with more than customary audacity among the books in his father’s book case, which become more accessible through the death of their gentle-looking tenant a short while before.

V

The cough of Herr Stangenberg had been growing worse and worse all through the winter.  He had to take to the bed more and more frequently.  There had been a terrible change in his appearance.  Only the eyes and his temper remained the same.  He was always cheerful and hopeful.  So he remained when he had to stay in bed entirely and a doctor began to pay him daily visits.  Keith’s mother did everything in her power to be of help, and it seemed to put her own troubles and worries more in the background.

“Consumption” was a word the parents often used in discussing the case of poor Herr Stangenberg, and Keith gathered that it was something dreadful and merciless, from which escape was impossible.  His attitude toward the whole matter was peculiar.  He listened to what his parents talked, but always in a spirit of utter indifference, as if what they said could have no possible bearing on his own life.

One evening the servant girl—­her name was Hilda at the time—­brought word that Herr Stangenberg wanted very badly to see Fru Wellander for a few minutes.

“I think he knows at last that the end is near,” Keith’s mother said as she rose to go into the parlour.  “What am I going to say if he asks me?”

“Nothing,” replied the father quietly.  “Leave that to the doctor.”

On her return, the mother sank down in her chair and began to grope for a handkerchief.  Keith saw that her eyes were lustrous with tears.

“What did he want?” asked the father with unusual anxiety.

“Well, if you tried for a month, you couldn’t guess it,” the mother said, and as she spoke, a smile broke through her tears.  “It is so sad and so funny that....  He wants me to send for his tailor to measure him for a new spring suit.”

“Has he no idea ...?” The father checked himself with a glance at Keith.