fallen asleep, he noticed that there was a light in my room, and tapped gently. I did not answer: nevertheless he came in.
"How late you have stayed up reading!" he said in a whisper. And then, seating himself on the couch beside me, he remained silent.
Covering my eyes with my hands, I let my head droop as low as to his knees, and in an instant was possessed with a mad, frenzied effervescence of expectancy. I shivered all over as with the ague; then shook all over with soundless laughter. Something was leaping up in my breast, palpitating in my very throat, in my brain, in my hands that were covering my eyes. … Had this unparalleled excitement lasted but one moment more I should have cried out aloud with terror and agony.
Then in an instant I grew quiet, overwhelmed with a sense of sudden numbness: and I let my head droop yet lower. Witold bent over me, and kissed my hair and shoulders. And then he raised up my head, and showered kisses on my eyes and mouth and throat.
Not one word of love did we speak. Al-
