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PARTISAN REVIEW
benches, not more than a few feet from my own location. For a long
time I stood there, peering at her. She sat perfectly upright and rigid.
At last I whispered her name, as low as might be.
If
she heard
it,
she
gave no sign. So I repeated her name, in the same fashion, and
again. Upon the third utterance, she whispered, 'yes,' but she did not
change her posture or turn her head. Then I spoke more loudly,
again uttering her name, and instantly, with a motion of wild alarm
she rose, with a strangled cry, and her hands lifted toward her face.
She reeled, and it seemed that she would collapse to the floor, but she
gained control of herself and stood there staring at me. Stammeringly,
I made my apology, saying that I had not wanted to startle her, that
I had understood her to answer yes to my whisper before I spoke, and
I asked her, 'Did you not answer to my whisper?'
"She replied that she had.
"'Then why were you distressed when I spoke again?' I asked
her.
" 'Because, I did not know that you were here,' she said.
" 'But,' I said, 'you say that you had just heard my whisper and
had answered to it, and now you say that you did not know I was
here.'
" 'I did not know that you were here,' she repeated, in a low
voice, and the import of what she was saying dawned upon me.
" 'Listen,' I said, 'when you heard the whisper-did you recog-
nize it was my voice?'
"She stared at me, not answering.
" 'Answer me,' I demanded, for I had to know.
"She continued to stare, and finally replied hesitantly, 'I do not
know.'
" 'You thought it was-' I began, but before I could utter the
words she had flung herself upon me, clasping me
in
desperation like
a person frantic with drowning, and ejaculated: 'No, no, it does not
matter what I thought, you are here, you are here!' And she drew
my face down and pressed her lips against mine to stop my words.
Her lips were cold, but they hung upon mine.
"I too wa<> perfectly cold, as of a mortal chill. And the coldness
was the final horror of the act which we performed, as though two
dolls should parody the shame and filth of man to make it doubly
shameful.
"After, she said to me, 'Had I not found you here tonight,
it
could never have been between us again.'
" 'Why?' I demanded.
