rm and took the pins out of her
hair. It fell down her back and looked, in the night, as if it were
lit by the setting sun.

The man made a sudden movement and looked at her in surprise. Not a
word.

She removed a gold brooch from the top of her blouse, and a bit of her
bosom appeared.

"What are you doing, Anna, what are you doing?"

"Why, undressing."

She wanted to say this in a natural voice, but had not succeeded. He
replied with an inarticulate exclamation, a cry from his heart, which
was touched to the quick. Stupefaction, desperate regret, and also the
flash of an inconceivable hope agitated him, oppressed him.

"You are my husband."

"Oh," he said, "you know I am nothing." He spoke feebly in a tragic
tone. "Married for form's sake," he went on, stammering out
fragmentary, incoherent phrases. "I knew it, I knew it--formality--our
conventions--"

She stopped, with her hand hesitating on her blouse like a flower, and
said:

"You are my husband. It is your right."

He made a faint gesture of denial. She quickly corrected herself.

"No, no, it is not your right. I want to do it."

I began to understand how kind she was trying to be. She wished to
give this man, this poor man who was sinking at her feet, a reward that
was worthy of her. She wanted to bestow upon him the gift of the sight
of her body.

But the thing was harder than the mere bestowal of a gift. It must not
look like the mere payment of a debt. He would not have consented to
that. She must make him believe it was a voluntary wifely act, a
willing caress. She must conceal her suffering and repugnance like a
vice. Feeling the difficulty of giving this delicate shade to her
sacrifice, she was afraid of herself.

"No, Anna--dear Anna--think--" He was going to say, "Think of Michel,"
but he did not have the strength at that moment to use this one
decisive argument, and only murmured, "You, you!"

"I want to do it," she repeated.

"But I do not want you to. No, no."

He said this in a weaker voice now, overcome by love. Through
instinctive nobility, he covered his eyes with his hand, but gradually
his hand surrendered and dropped.

She continued to undress, with uncertain movements that showed she
hardly knew what she was doing. She took off her black waist, and her
bust emerged like the day. When the light shone on her she quivered
and crossed her shining arms over her chest. Then she started to
unhook the bel