in her cheeks; the dill pickle was terribly sour. . . .

"Yes, I know perfectly what you mean," she said. [Page 235]

In the pause that followed they looked at each other. In the past when they had looked at each other like that they had felt such a boundless understanding between them that their souls had, as it were, put their arms round each other and dropped into the same sea, content to be drowned, like mournful lovers. But now, the surprising thing was that it was he who held back. He who said:

"What a marvellous listener you are. When you look at me with those wild eyes I feel that I could tell you things that I would never breathe to another human being."

Was there just a hint of mockery in his voice or was it her fancy? She could not be sure. "Before I met you," he said, "I had never spoken of myself to anybody. How well I remember one night, the night that I brought you the little Christmas tree, telling you all about my childhood. And of how I was so miserable that I ran away and lived under a cart in our yard for two days without being discovered. And you listened, and your eyes shone, and I felt that you had even made the little Christmas tree listen too, as in a fairy story."

But of that evening she had remembered a little pot of caviare. It had cost seven and sixpence. He could not get over it. Think of it–a tiny jar like that costing seven and sixpence. While she ate it he watched her, delighted and shocked.

"No, really, that is eating money. You could not [Page 236] get seven shillings into a little pot that size. Only think of the profit they must make. . . . " And he had begun some immensely complicated calculations. . . . But now good-bye to the caviare. The Christmas tree was on the table, and the little boy lay under the cart with his head pillowed on the

6

“是的，我完全知道你的意思。”她说。

在停顿的那一刻，他们彼此都在注视着对方。在过去，当他们像这样注视着对方时，他们感受到了彼此的灵魂，仿佛在伸出双臂，拥抱着对方，共同坠入同一片海洋，甘愿被大海所吞没，就像苦恋着的情人。但此刻，他说： 你真是位杰出的听众。当你用那双狂热的眼睛看着我时，我感到我要向你倾诉我从不向别人说的那些话。“

他的言谈中带有嘲笑的口气吗？她不敢肯定。 “我清楚地记得那天晚上我给你带去了一棵小圣诞树，并向你讲述了我童年的故事。告诉你我是如何痛苦以至逃跑出来，在我家院子里的马车底下住了两天，竟没被人发现。你在那里听着，两眼炯炯发光，我仿佛感到那棵小圣诞树在你的感染下也在聆听，就像神话故事里一样。