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“I saw her, but it would have been better not to have seen her at all….”
Very soon I saw her. When I returned from this expedition a new order came, and we were again sent by the same route. This time we conducted a student—he was cheerful, sang various songs, and knew well how to swallow whisky. He was sent still farther. We drove through the same town in which we had left the girl, and curiosity induced me to try to learn what had become of her.
“Does the young lady live here?” I inquired.
They said: “Yes, but she acted strangely when she first came here; she went at once to see one of the ‘offenders,’ and from that time nobody has seen her; she is living with him…. Some say she is ill, while others gossip and affirm that she is pregnant, and that she is living with him as unmarried…. How people can invent!”
And I knew, then, why she
