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Show 1»/ 19% 'l'lll‘l lHlIK l"()lllil\"l‘ NIKITIN quillit)‘ tor the first time in all lllIV days. l: did not, asl had done a l'ter many earlier lirst. un‘eline's, hasten to see nrv triend. l did not hnow even that she lilied um and vet I felt no douht nor contusion. It was, perhaps. that [was ready to awept this new inllnenee unde r any eonditions, was ready for onee to leave the rules to another. I felt no enriosit)‘. knew no detmanination to disco ver the eondi- thins (it her title that l might hend then! to nrv own purposes. l was \lllllt‘ passive, nntronhled, and (it a marve llous, almost sellish happiness. trv to keep this thing so that it should he happv and should endure. I said that I would ohey her in anything;~ that she should eonnnand. . . . There tollowed then the strangest lil‘e for me. hovers in the fullest sense we were and yet [I was different from any love that I had ever known. \Vhen l ask nivselt why. in what. it (littered l eannut answer. 'llwn nlllicrev middle-aged people who happened to <uit one lt‘. soon came, to our meeting e\er'\' day. .111 the summer they moved to their house in l"inlaud and l went to stay with them. lint it '1 it all the rmwn \\.;< that she never revealed luahelldo l was :ll\\.r\~' rurlwus almut her. alwalw tell 7" .: Hlllt‘l' l""‘l‘l" l-ll‘\\ m‘ W "l llI‘l‘ than l tllll. :ll\\.r\~ lt is ‘hnowiun‘ all. tl.~l_rl.t1l ll . mlzx l ~~ll~‘ihl hunw all. .e l ll. was not until her return to .l'etroarad in September that l told her that I loved her. l'pon one of the first autumn ll very quietly as l talked, her eyes on my face, grave, sad per l r . l ' :' " ' \' l " 'V t'l l l ' l , \. l l { ‘.l l..l ? l ."‘l i,‘ l >‘ V \ \' l' ' ll" .llHl y'Hl'lllllwl I.‘._\ ll‘ i V :wt '-.lll t‘wl l:"r- l z ' ‘l \lwlz: - lit like ll.l‘ lill‘lll ~" ' iv ‘l haps, and yet humorous, secure in her own settled lite hut wl ', ' ' ll ‘. with .l navst I'\I'I'llt‘|‘ll\ ll-r": -'.l' L'\\ lltf.t‘":\|‘ltt‘l',lIlltlh'ltv\t‘, \\~ ll. true lIt-t‘f‘alillllt', .lll‘l -‘ ll ‘.~: w ‘lll "M were ulna); tn n 2:: ~1- \u~r. rrnmrhalvh' llllt lllw‘tne. "we. l :ii:t 'r‘.‘:~.~. their door was gold and there was a slip of an aprieot mouth when the first tires were lighted (Andrey Vassilieviteh had English fireplaces), sitting alone together in her little taded old-fashioned room, I told her that I loved her. She listened She watched me rather r.l l l1<‘.v~l'l.llr'~.\ .l'l. Fl e \K ,~ a it‘ll r. days, upon an evening, when the little green tree outside sharing also in the life of others. rm 1 amt in the ‘f"'l m tantalum "paw. f l: .. . Iltirr l "(lur l'riendship eontinued very easily. 1:") as a mother watches her Child. . . . I told her that it iaat‘ tered nothing the et‘lnditions that she put: upon me; that so ll i'l"!. ,1 v long: as I saw her and knew that she believed we to he lat friend I asked for nothing. Sh I answered, still very quietly , . . I ' W. , ‘ . \ x , v t ' l. I . 11‘ , but putting her hand on mine, that she had loved me twill the first moment of our n‘ieeting. That she wondfl‘t‘d Ill" yet once again love should have come into her life when she had thought that that was all finished for her. She told l f‘ ll'll ll ll P ml 1 W . vhl ll. me that love had been in her life nothing;- but; pain and dl." tress, and then she asked me, very simply, whether I Would ' ' .' l L it "It ni_. n I ~ |
