Have you ever dared, dear, even in the depths of your heart, to set a date, a date relatively far off, but exact and absolute, with four figures, and to say, 'No matter how old I shall live to be, on that day I shall be dead--while everything else will go on, and little by little my empty place will be destroyed or filled again ?'" The directness of her question disturbed him.

But it seemed to me that he tried most to avoid giving her a reply that would heighten her obsession.
And all at once, she remembered something he had once said to her, and cleverly reminded him of it so as to close his mouth in advance and torture herself still more.
"Do you remember?
One evening, by lamplight.

I was looking through a book.

You were watching me.

You came to me, you knelt down and put your arms around my waist, and laid your head in my lap.