"And your life is happy?"
"Perfectly, perfectly."
Radiantly she folded her hands.
She did not suspect her position on the fearful edge of an abyss. She had not yet realised what his coming meant, nor how defenceless she was.
He had but to stretch out his arms and she would fly to him, ready to sacrifice her fate to his mood. And this time there would be no returning to that well-ordered content.
A dull feeling of responsibility arose in him and paralysed his will. Here was all that he needed in order to conquer a few years of new freshness and joy for the arid desert of his life. Here was the spring of life for which he was athirst. And he had not the courage to touch it with his lips.
Chapter IV.
A silence ensued in which their mood threatened to darken and grow turbid.
Then he pulled himself together.
"You don't ask me why I came, dear friend."