When I discovered it I went up to the Reams' and fetched
Vinnie down into the street to see it. It was an incredibly beautiful
atmospheric phenomenon. Next evening it manifested itself again, on a
background of black clouds, and that was the last beautiful sight upon
which Vinnie and I looked together.
Next evening I wrote:
Vinnie Ream leaves to-morrow morning; I said good-bye to her this
evening. Unfortunately a great many people were there. She took my hand
and said: "I wish you everything good in the world, and I know that you
wish me the same." And then: Good-bye. A door opens, and a door closes,
and people never meet again on this earth, never again, never--and
human language has never been able to discover any distinction between
good-bye for an hour, and good-bye forever. People sit and chat, smile
and jest. Then you get up, and the story is finished. Over! over! And
that is the end of all stories, says Andersen.
All one's life one quarrels with people as dear to one as Ploug is to
me. I have a well-founded hope that I may see Rudolph Schmidt's profile
again soon, and a hundred times again after that; but Vinnie I shall
never see again.
I did not understand her at first; I had a few unpleasant conjectures
ready. I had to have many conversations with her before I understood her
ingenuousness, her ignorance, her thorough goodness, in short, all her
simple healthiness of soul.
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