"Of course I'll stay with you," said the intendant consolingly. "At such moments, the presence of a friend is like a light in the night, obliging or, at all events, enabling one to see surrounding objects; it teaches us that the world has not yet ceased to exist, and that we do wrong to bury ourselves in solitude."
"Oh, you understand me! Tell me what to do, what to begin? I know nothing. I am like a child that has lost its way in the dark woods."
"Yes, that you are."
Bruno started. The intendant's confirmation of his opinion of himself rather displeased him.
"I am so weak now," said he. "Just think of what I've had to suffer during the last few days."
There was a strange mixture of gentleness and bitterness in his tone.
"May I smoke?" he asked.
"Certainly. Do anything that pleases you."
"Ah, no, nothing pleases me. And yet I should like to smoke."
He lit a cigar.