She felt a sudden and irresistible impulse to reveal the depths of her soul to him.
She moved closer to him and said quietly: "I was not thinking about death."
"Then you were seeking calm?"
"Yes, I wanted to take a look at nature and to forget."
"Forget about what?"
"About life!" Janina whispered hoarsely and tears of violent grief filled her eyes.
"You are a child. It must have been some disappointment in love, some thwarted ambition, or perhaps the lack of a dinner that put you in such a tragic mood."
"All that taken together is not enough to make one feel very, very unhappy," answered Janina.
"All that taken together is one big zero, for according to my way of thinking there is nothing that can make wholly unhappy an individual who knows himself," he said.
"Who are you . . . that is, what do you do?" he asked, after pausing a while.