e about me, by degrees I made myself the
same as they were. After a time, I never said what I really thought and
soon I ceased to notice the difference between the two. As I thought
that it was impossible for me ever to go away, it seemed to me a wise
policy to adapt myself to the life I had to live. It was a lie at first;
later it became second nature...."

But now? Now that all that existence is no more than a temporary
unpleasantness, what is her attitude?

2

It was striking eight when I came up to the farm. As a rule, everybody
is in bed by then. But to-day was the feast of the patron-saint of the
village; and there must have been dancing and drinking till nightfall.
At that moment, the darkness was so thick that I could hardly see
anything in front of me. I found the gate locked. Clinging to the trees
and pulling myself through the thorns and brambles, I climbed across the
bank and dropped into the orchard. I at once called softly to the dog,
so that he should recognise a friend's voice, and, as soon as I was
certain of his silence, I walked quietly to the house, where there was a
light in two of the windows at the back of the farm-yard. Not daring to
take the path that led to the door, I made my way as best I could
through the long grass. I was shivering in my dress; and my feet were
frozen. Whenever the moon peeped through two clouds, I quickly flung
myself against a tree and waited without moving for the darkness to
return. Cows were lying here and there on the grass: at each lull in
the storm, I heard the heavy breathing of the sleeping animals; and
their peacefulness soothed my troubled mind.

Some thirty yards from the house, I stopped, uncertain what to do. It
can be approached only by going a little higher, for it is built on a
mound in the centre of the yard. The whole length of the one-storeyed,
thatched buildings was without a tree or any dark corner where I could
shelter.

I was still hesitating, when suddenly a shadow passed across one of the
windows. I seemed to recognise Rose, and my rising curiosity made me
cover in a moment the distance that separated me from her. Once there,
against the window-pane, I thought of nothing else.

No, it was not fear but sorrow that oppressed me from the first glance
within: Rose was laughing at the top of her voice, her mouth opened in a
paroxysm of mirth. She was laughing a silly, brutish laugh, lying back
in her chair, with her knees wide apart and her ha