A NEW YEAR'S FABLE
263
always disturbed her and, after looking intently at me, she
would resume her work.
The question tormented her. She resolved to test me again.
We had established a certain rule: if there was a break in the
work, we made it a point to go somewhere for an hour or two
-to an exhibition, to the opera or to a concert. But one eve–
ning, having set the automatic instruments and plugged in the
heaters, she put her arm in mine.
"We have some free time. A whole hour. Will you make
me a present of it?"
I thought it over.
"Well, all right. I'll make you a present of it."
We went out into the street. She dragged me off some–
where, and I found myself walking with her through some dark
alley. Then suddenly she asked me:
"Don't you really remember this walk?"
I was tired of all this and did not hide my irritation:
"I'm glad you are becoming less formal. It should have
happened long ago. But I beg you to stop your strange game;
you've been playing it for two months already, and I don't
understand anything. This game is a waste of time."
"Where are you always hurrying?"
At that moment I saw in the shadows behind the street
lamp the dark shape of my owl, and its glittering, rapidly
blinking eyes. I stopped. I was about to show my companion
those two eyes, but I remembered she would not see them any–
how.
"Where am I hurrying to?" I decided to tell her every–
thing point blank. "All right then: I have less than a year to
live."
My words overwhelmed her. I seemed to have said the
one thing that was needed to produce the explosion. She stopped
me, stepped in front of me and, cupping her hands, held them
under my chin. I saw at close range her eyes filled with tears.
"If
you are convinced that you have less than a year, then
