“Never, Severin,” she said gently, but with great firmness.
“What do you mean?”
I was frightened in my innermost soul.
“You are not the man for me.”
I looked at her, and slowly withdrew my arm which was still about her waist; then I left the room, and she—she did not call me back.
* * * * *
A sleepless night; I made countless decisions, only to toss them aside again. In the morning I wrote her a letter in which I declared our relationship dissolved. My hand trembled when I put on the seal, and I burned my fingers.
As I went upstairs to hand it to the maid, my knees threatened to give way.
The door opened, and Wanda thrust forth her head full of curling-papers.
“I haven’t had my hair dressed yet,” she said, smiling. “What have you there?”