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 and you won't expect kisses from me.' I wept as I spoke to him, like a little girl, and my heart was torn with grief and with a strange joy. I knew my sin, and my contrite heart trembled in my bosom. I repented, and in that moment I knew that He who had given me a heart to love and to be happy had forgiven me. Bernard looked lovingly at me, and I saw that he was touched to the depths of his soul. He kissed my hand and said, 'Don't take away the crimson ribbon from me, dear Agnes,' and I whispered back, 'Keep it,' and ran away to my own room. For a long time I wept there, and I wanted to weep endlessly. But I remembered that I must see after the supper, and I came downstairs, after carefully bathing my swollen eyelids in cold water."

Agnes was silent, and with a timid imploring gaze looked up at her husband. The eyes of the old man glowed as radiantly as in his youth. He put his arm around his wife tenderly and said:

"I remember that day, dear Agnes. I remember it, because I knew all. I saw you and I understood everything."

"You knew!" exclaimed Agnes quietly. "You knew, and said nothing to me!"