ago, you had to go to the capital on some important business, and I was then teaching at the university... Do you remember what a reckless young fellow you were?... Do you remember that beautiful, dark-eyed person you loved!?
— Do I remember!... Yes... yes, she was called "Hayfa" — and here a weak, fading smile hovered over his face, scorched by the sun's blaze and covered with the venerable lines of age...
— I warned you, and told you frankly and more than once: she may pursue you... she may play you false... she may wreck your family... so beware, turn away from her... But you would not desist, nor come back to your senses...
You deceived your wife... And she grew suspicious and doubted it, but she said nothing; she suffered in stillness and quiet. You did not notice it, but I perceived it.
She was the first woman whose heart I wished to look into, whose soul I wished to fathom, after my father's death. She entered my life like a bright, glittering star... and I too was to her as a shining, glittering star... And I merely summoned my courage at the first opportunity and asked her the cause of her unease and languor. She smiled and said her health was not quite well...
And the days went by, one after another, and New Year's Day came; I came here about eight, as usual, and she was sitting embroidering. I sat down opposite her and began to read in a book while we waited for you to come home. The hours passed, one upon another... and you did not appear. I caught her confusion and her trembling... and I grew confused and trembled. I knew the person who was beguiling you away from us, and I feared you would forget midnight in her
hands! And there is the clock dancing before me, its two hands drawing near each other to meet above the twelve... Your wife could no longer embroider in that state of stifled trembling, so she stopped, and I stopped reading with her. A dreadful, fearful silence reigned, and I saw a tear steal from her eyes and flow down slowly, quietly, and fall upon the piece she had been embroidering. I sprang up, meaning to go to you and bring you back to your house, for I felt at that moment a tremendous force driving me to wrench you by force from that lady's side... But your wife leapt up at the same instant from this chair on which I now sit, and cried:
"— Where are you going? —" and an indescribable terror and pallor overspread her face.
I said to her: "I am going to bring you home." And no sooner did she see me making ready to go than she cried, with courtesy and gentleness: "Do not leave me alone, for pity's sake; at least, with you near me, the desolation of solitude is eased. Do not leave me, I beg you." Then she threw herself upon me, flung her arms about my shoulders, and hid her wet face against my chest. My body quivered like a slaughtered bird: it was the first time I had felt a woman's body pressed against me... But I mastered myself and gently put her from me, and set about consoling her and soothing away her alarm and dread... A little afterward you returned, but you did not notice my confusion: your cheeks were brimming with red, and a heavy weariness and great fatigue clothed your eyes.
That day wrought an upheaval that filled the soul with terror and disquiet, like a shrieking cry or a piercing alarm.
From the moment I felt her soft,
yielding hands encircle my neck, from the moment I breathed the perfume of her jet-black hair, the star fell from the sky... and in place of a bright, glittering star there was only — the woman — the beautiful, graceful woman... breathing out love and breathing it in.
My looks that day betrayed infatuation, longing, and passion; and I showed myself thenceforth a fool and a cunning deceiver. And so as to make at least a partial atonement to my conscience, I set about using every means to part you from your mistress; by good luck I had with me a little money I had inherited, so I gave it to her, and she was satisfied with that, and...
The host cut him off with earnest severity: So you are the man who severed the tie between me and the one I desired. You are the cause of that affecting letter she sent me: the letter of farewell into which she poured all the wiles and cunning at her command, so as to end by saying, "I have forgotten your love, so away with you from me!"?...
— Yes! I am that man. But hear me out. I wanted to purchase with the money the peace I hoped for, but I was mistaken. The wicked thoughts still pursued me. I buried myself in my work, but fate refused me peace... And so a whole year passed, and the feast of the New Year came round. I was sitting near her on this bench once more; but this time you were in the house, asleep in the next room, worn out with the din of the club. I sat near her, gazing innocently at her pale face; but the memory of last year's feast beguiled me, and resistance was beyond me, and before I knew it her head was at my neck once more; before I knew it, I was kissing her for the second time... Our eyes met, and I fancied a