I mean, of course, that she didn’t tell me everything, for no one ever does, but she told me what she chose I should know. After that first confrontation with Asta over the coffee cups, after the second that night in Asta’s room, it was a long while before she said anything to Torben. My mother was her confidante but forbidden, for the time being, to discuss any of it with Asta herself. So why was Torben kept in the dark? Everyone said theirs was a good marriage, they seemed devoted to each other, inseparable. The story of his long ardent courtship was well-known. It was possible when with them to see the occasional conspiratorial glance which passed from him to her, the half-smile she gave him covertly in return. At home they spoke Danish together, their private language, their personal code. But she didn’t tell him what her mother had confessed to her. When my mother saw her she was often distraught, with dark rings round her eyes from lack of sleep. She even got tranquillizers from the doctor.
