Wanda threw her arms around my neck, looked into my eyes, and shook her head.
“I am afraid I can’t, but I will try, for your sake, for I love you Severin, as I have loved no other man.”
* * * * *
To-day she suddenly took her hat and shawl, and I had to go shopping with her. She looked at whips, long whips with a short handle, the kind that are used on dogs.
“Are these satisfactory?” said the shopkeeper.
“No, they are much too small,” replied Wanda, with a side-glance at me. “I need a large—”
“For a bull-dog, I suppose?” opined the merchant.
“Yes,” she exclaimed, “of the kind that are used in Russia for intractable slaves.”
She looked further and finally selected a whip, at whose sight I felt a strange creeping sensation.
“Now good-by, Severin,” she said. “I have some other purchases to make, but you can’t go along.”