handsome.

He had a charming serious face, fringed with a fine black beard, a high
forehead and sparkling eyes. A haughty grace guided and refined his
movements.

He came forward a step or two, then returned to the door, which was
still open. The shadow of the door trembled, a silhouette appeared and
took shape. A little black-gloved hand grasped the knob, and a woman
stole into the room, with a questioning face.

She must have been a few steps behind him in the street. They had not
wished to enter the room together, in which they both sought refuge to
escape pursuit.

She closed the door, and leaned her whole weight against it, to close
it still tighter. Slowly she turned her head to him, paralysed for a
moment, it seemed to me, with fear that it was not he. They stared
into each other's faces. A cry burst from them, passionate,
restrained, almost mute, echoing from one to the other. It seemed to
open up their wound.

"You!"

"You!"

She almost fainted. She dropped on his breast as though swept by a
storm. She had just strength enough to fall into his arms. I saw the
man's two large pale hands, opened but slightly crooked, resting on the
woman's back. A sort of desperate palpitation seized them, as if an
immense angel were in the Room, struggling and making vain efforts to
escape. And it seemed to me that the Room was too small for this
couple, although it was full of the evening.

"They didn't see us!"

It was the same phrase which had come the other day from the two
children.

He said, "Come!" leading her over to the sofa, near the window, and
they seated themselves on the red velvet. I saw their arms joined
together as though by a cord. They remained there, engrossed,
gathering about them all the shadow of the world, reviving, beginning
to live again in their element of night and solitude.

What an entry, what an entry! What an irruption of anathema!

I had thought, when this form of sin presented itself before me, when
the woman appeared at the door, plainly driven toward him, that I
should witness bliss in its plenitude, a savage and animal joy, as
momentous as nature. On the contrary, I found that this meeting was
like a heart-rending farewell.

"Then we shall always be afraid?"

She seemed just a little more tranquil, and said this with an anxious
glance at him, as if really expecting a reply.

She shuddered, huddled in the shadows, feverishly stroking and pressing
the man