"So that is how the soldiers speak of me?"
"Leave this place," I advised her earnestly.
"Why?"
"They will get the better of you."
She laughed pleasantly. Then she asked:
"Do you study? Are you fond of books?"
"I have no time for reading."
"If you were fond of it, you would find the time. Well, thank you."
She held out a piece of silver money to me, grasped between her first finger and her thumb. I felt ashamed to take that cold thing from her, but I did not dare to refuse. As I went out, I laid it on the pedestal of the stair-banisters.
I took away with me a deep, new impression from that woman. It was as if a new day had dawned for me. I lived for several days in a state of joy, thinking of the spacious room and the tailor's wife sitting in it, dressed in pale blue and looking like an angel. Everything around her was unfamiliarly beautiful. A dull-gold carpet lay under her feet; the winter day looked through the silver panes of the window, warming itself in her presence. I wanted very much to look at her again. How would it be if I went to her and asked her for a book?