I made no answer. The room seemed to be in a whirl
"Why don't you speak?" Matilda insisted, concealing her quizzical purpose under a well-acted air of gravity
Her two friends roared, and, spurred on by their merriment, she continued to make game of me.
"Won't you give us one look, at least? Do, please! Come, my mother will never find out you have been guilty of a great sin like that."
I was dying to get up and fling out of the room, but I felt glued to the spot. Their cruel sport, which made me faint with embarrassment and misery, had something inexpressibly alluring in it
One of the two girls said something in Russian of which I caught the word "kiss" and which was greeted by a new outburst of laughter. I was terror-stricken
"Well, pious Jew!" Matilda resumed. "Suppose a girl were to give you a kiss.
What would you do? Commit suicide, would you? Well, never fear; we won't be as cruel as all that. I tell you what, though. I'll hide your side-locks behind your ears. I just want to see how you would look without them." At this she stepped up close to me and reached out her hands for my two appendages
I pushed her off. "Please, let me alone," I protested
"At last we have heard his voice. Bravo! We're making headway, aren't we?"