was aware that I could forgive him anything in the world.
Yet I said: "My love for you would then instantly turn to hate, as it did for the last few days. …"
He feigned to be horribly frightened. We were both of us in ecstasies of joy.
Long, long, did we speak together of our love. We should love each other forever and forever: and with what intensity! … Only we were to have more of mutual trust, and to be more tolerant one for the other: there would be no more of those former bickerings which had been so painful to both of us.
Closer and closer wt drew. Hallucinated with rapture, I was almost out of my mind. The air around me grew rosy, and the walls had a purple glow, and the lamp was burning—how can I express it? Black, quite black! Bending down his head, he fixed his eyes on me.
"Janka!" he said, with low but clear-cut articulation; "Janka!" His voice was changed; it was strangled and seething with emotion. There was in it just a touch of surprise—surprise at the victory which he now foresaw.
