Page:Nalkowska - Kobiety (Women).djvu/214

202 out their half-nude limbs with serpent-like grace,—all these surrounded with Oriental magnificence: and again exquisite women, very lady-like in their British stiffness, and the sexless elegance of their tailor-made dresses simple but striking. A multitudinous chaotic assembly of many a style and many a nationality, down to one monstrously sensual negress, no doubt a singer in some music-hall.

"Since you have been away," she said, "it has been a custom with me to pore over this album. Those different faces remind me of the different periods of my life. I possess but few belonging to the old times of Witold's love-making; but of those he loved since he married, not one is w^anting here. Some of them I purchased myself."

"That," I observed, "was of old a custom of yours. I remember well how as a girl the collections you liked best to make were post-cards with photographs of handsome actresses."

"Oh, but that was quite different," she replied with a shake of the head. "I feel such a pleasure in gloating over this collection!"

"Yes, the pleasure you take in self-inflicted torture!"