Page:Andreyev - The Little Angel (Knopf, 1916).djvu/64

58 When they began to extinguish the lights, I went up to her and said:

"It is time to go. I will accompany you."

But she expressed surprise.

"But certainly I am going with him," and she pointed to the tall, handsome man, who was not looking at us. She led me out into an empty room and kissed me.

"You lie," I said very softly.

"We shall meet again to-morrow. You must come," was her answer. When I drove home, the green frosty dawn was looking out from behind the high roofs. In the whole street there were only we two, the sledge-driver and I. He sat with bent head and wrapped-up face, and I sat behind him wrapped up to the very eyes. The sledge-driver had his thoughts, and I had mine, and there behind the thick walls thousands of people were sleeping, and they had their own dreams and thoughts. I thought of her, and of how she lied. I thought of death, and it seemed to me that those dimly-lightened walls had already looked upon my death, and that was why they were so cold and upright. I know not what the thoughts of the sledge-driver may have been, neither do I know of what those hidden by the walls were dreaming. But then, neither did they know my thoughts and reveries.

And so we drove on through the long and straight streets, and the dawn rose from behind