She must be rich, I thought, and I collected myself and said:
"It is for you to speak."
"Were you serious when you asked me about my running away from here?"
I stopped to think how I could best insult her, but then, like a coward, I answered quietly:
"No. It was only to test your piety."
Again she lit a match. Her face stood out clearly and her black eyes gazed boldly. It was unpleasant for me.
I got used to the darkness and saw that she stood, tall and black, in the middle of the room, and her bearing was strangely straight.
"You need not test my piety," she whispered hotly. "I did not call you here for that, and if you do not understand, go away from here."
Her breast heaved and there was something serious in her voice—nothing loose.
In the wall opposite me was a window, and it looked like a path which had been cut out of the darkness into the night. The sight of it was disagreeable to me.