Page:The Jail, Experiences in 1916.pdf/207

 Frank stood up. He looked at me, smiled with that smile of his, at which the golden strips in his white teeth glistened, and announced in a coldly dry voice as if he were reading a verdict: "Would you please see that today's visit is as short as possible. Perhaps you would be so good as to arrange only the next meeting, for Mr. M. will be set at liberty tomorrow, at the latest the day after tomorrow,—today is Friday, so that will be on Sunday. I have already had the order submitted to the military commander for signature."

He continued to look at me,—and in this look was contained everything: Mild reproaches that I had been unfair to him, quiet satisfaction at the joyful news, the triumph of an unknown person who can at last reveal himself in his true form,—a human being, really a human being. So my inner voice had not deceived me,—from our first meeting I had felt drawn towards him, but I had let my reason stifle this feeling, and endeavoured even insulting to him; and I was so,—yet all the while this letter of the law contained a soul, this personification of a sub-section contained a heart. A human being, a human being.

But Madam M. L. sat down without a word, as if she did not know whether to believe it, and when she began to believe it, as if she did not know whether it was all a dream or not. And in her face she had, strangely enough, an expression of painful surprise. (Later on she admitted to me that she had heard only the tone of Frank's voice but not his words, and from the tone of it she had felt that my situation had become more acute).

But I preserved my composure; not even with the flicker of an eyelash did I show that I was astonished, stirred with emotion; I felt that this role with Frank must be played to the end in the style in which it had been begun.