.." or "I wonder
whether she'll mind if I ask--" He had a large briar pipe at which he
puffed furiously, but could not smoke without an endless procession of
matches that afterwards littered the floor around him. "The tobacco's
damp," he explained to us a hundred times. "It's better damp...."
Then, quite suddenly, the blow fell.
One evening, as they were standing alone together in the yard watching
the yellow sky die into dusk, without any preparation, she spoke to
him.
"John," she said, "I can't marry you."
He heard her as though she had spoken to another man. It was as though
he said: "Ah, that will be bad news for so-and-so."
"I don't understand," he said, and instantly afterwards his heart
began to beat like a raging beast and his knees trembled.
"I can't marry you," she told him, "because I don't love you. Ah, I've
known it a long time--ever since we left Petrograd. I've often, often
wanted to tell you ... I've been afraid."
"You can't marry me?" he repeated, "But you must.
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