Page:Evgenii Zamyatin - We (Zilboorg translation).pdf/168

Rh pages which were twitching in my hands. Then for a second—familiar, everyday faces at the door; one of them separated itself from the rest with its bulging, pinkish-brown gills

At once I recalled everything that had happened in the same room half an hour ago, and it was clear to me that they would presently

All my being was shriveling and pulsating in that fortunately opaque part of my body with which I was covering the manuscript. U- came up to S-, gently plucked his sleeve, and said in a low voice:

“This is D-503, the builder of the Integral. You have probably heard of him. He always like that, at his desk—does not spare himself at all!”

And I thought What a dear, wonderful woman!

S- slid up to me, bent over my shoulder toward the table. I covered the lines I had written with my elbow, but he shouted severely:

“Show us at once what you have there, please!”

Dying with shame, I held out the sheet of paper. He read it over, and I noticed a tiny smile jump out of his eyes, scamper down his face, and, slightly wagging its tail, perch upon the right angle of his mouth

“Somewhat ambiguous, yet Well, you may continue; we shall not disturb you any further.”

He went splashing toward the door as if in a ditch of water. And with every step of his I felt coming back to me my legs, my arms, my fingers—my soul again distributed itself evenly throughout my whole body; I breathed

The last thing: U- lingered in my room to come back to me and say right in my ear, in a whisper: "It is lucky for you that I ”

I did not understand. What did she mean by that? The same evening I learned that they had led away three