came solemn and tender.

She was suddenly a different being from the discontented wife who had
tapped a moment since on my door, a woman transfigured....

That evening I came down to dinner a monster of pride, for behold! I
was a man. I felt myself the most wonderful and unprecedented of
adventurers. It was hard to believe that any one in the world before
had done as much. My mistress and I met smiling, we carried things off
admirably, and it seemed to me that Willersley was the dullest old dog
in the world. I wanted to give him advice. I wanted to give him derisive
pokes. After dinner and coffee in the lounge I was too excited and
hilarious to go to bed, I made him come with me down to the cafe under
the arches by the pier, and there drank beer and talked extravagant
nonsense about everything under the sun, in order not to talk about the
happenings of the afternoon. All the time something shouted within me:
"I am a man! I am a man!"...

"What shall we do to-morrow?" said he.

"I'm for loafing," I said. "Let's row in the morning and spend to-morrow
afternoon just as we did to-day."

"They say the church behind the town is worth seeing."

"We'll go up about sunset; that's the best time for it. We can start
about five."

We heard music, and went further along the arcade to discover a place
where girls in operatic Swiss peasant costume were singing and dancing
on a creaking, protesting little stage. I eyed their generous display
of pink neck and arm with the seasoned eye of a man who has lived in the
world. Life was perfectly simple and easy, I felt, if one took it the
right way.

Next day Willersley wanted to go on, but I delayed. Altogether I kept
him back four days. Then abruptly my mood changed, and we decided
to start early the following morning. I remember, though a little
indistinctly, the feeling of my last talk with that woman whose surname,
odd as it may seem, either I never learnt or I have forgotten. (Her
christian name was Milly.) She was tired and rather low-spirited, and
disposed to be sentimental, and for the first time in our intercourse I
found myself liking her for the sake of her own personality. There was
something kindly and generous appearing behind the veil of naive and
uncontrolled sensuality she had worn. There was a curious quality of
motherliness in her attitude to me that something in my nature answered
and approved. She didn't pretend to keep it up that she had yielded to
my initiati