The night was gone for good.  Then he heard a door open upstairs.  Someone came down the stairs, and Elizabeth stood before him.  She touched his arm, she moved her lips, but he heard nothing.

In a moment, she said, “You’ll never come back.  I know it.  Don’t say you will.  You’ll never come back.”

“No, I never will,” he said.

She dropped her hand and said nothing more.  She was standing, motionless, at the very same spot as before, looking at him through lifeless eyes.  He took one step toward her, opened his arms, and then, wrenching himself violently, he thrust himself outside.  The world was alight with morning; the dew entangled in the spider webs gleamed in the first sunlight.  He never looked back.  Behind him the peaceful farm slowly dissolved; and in front of him rose the great, wide world.”


- Theodor Storm, from Immensee