Page:Nalkowska - Kobiety (Women).djvu/147

Rh had him again; but I asked him what he had been doing all night.

"'Oh, but I am in fear, in such fear of you,' he said, smiling, kneeling down before me, and clasping his hand—so! You know the gesture well; it is almost the embodiment of child-like humility.

"'Oh, what?'

"'I want you to promise you will not be angry with me.'

"I was suddenly torn with a sharp misgiving.

"'No, do not tell me, Witold,' I whispered.

"But he was unable to conceal anything from me. All he said in excuse was that I ought to pardon everything, by reason of his great love; that no woman could ever snatch from me the place which I held in his heart. That he had not been truly unfaithful, since his true and only love had always been with me; I was the only woman that his soul loved, and not his senses. &hellip; It is ever the same: stretch out your hands for life, and Death will come to you!"

"And what did you do?"

"In the first moments I did not understand