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Suddenly a spasm of horrible unearthly dread clutches at my heart.

"Good God! Look there!" I cry.

"What—what of it?"

I raise my hand to my eyes, and shudder all over with fear, and press close to him.

"There—just beneath us, far, horribly far down—there is water!"

"Well, what of that? There is nothing to be frightened at. I know the garden; it is only a brook which feeds the pond."

"Let us go away—away at once. I saw it glitter through the leaves in the dark: it was so strange! And so deep down: an abyss where I never dreamed the ground sloped at all."

"But we could not fall in: there is a stone barrier."

"No matter," I whisper, half-frantic with dread. "Let us go!"

We make the best of our way back. Janusz is silent, but I feel, as I am holding to his arm, that he too is trembling. He might have quieted me with the words: "Fear nothing by my side!" For but a minute ago, I had boundless confidence in him. Now I know that he can be frightened.