But a second after she thought I might as well go as far as the door with her. Gracious me, there couldn't be anything wrong in that, could there?
"No," I replied.
But when we were standing at the door all my misery confronted me clearly. How was one to keep up one's courage when one was so broken down? Here I stood before a young lady, dirty, ragged, torn, disfigured by hunger, unwashed, and only half-clad; it was enough to make one sink into the earth. I shrank into myself, bent my head involuntarily, and said:
"May I not meet you any more then?"
I had no hope of being permitted to see her again. I almost wished for a sharp No, that would pull me together a bit and render me callous.
"Yes," she whispered softly, almost inaudibly.
"When?"
"I don't know."
A pause....
"Won't you be so kind as to lift your veil, only just for a minute," I asked. "So that I can see whom I have been talking to. Just for one moment, for indeed I must see whom I have been talking to."