down in adoration to those shoes� . ‘And here I am sitting before her,’ I thought; ‘I have made acquaintance with her � what happiness, my God!’ I could hardly keep from jumping up from my chair in ecstasy, but I only swung my legs a little, like a small child who has been given sweetmeats.

I was as happy as a fish in water, and I could have stayed in that room for ever, have never left that place.

Her eyelids were slowly lifted, and once more her clear eyes shone kindly upon me, and again she smiled.

‘How you look at me!’ she said slowly, and she held up a threatening finger.

I blushed � ‘She understands it all, she sees all,’ flashed through my mind. ‘And how could she fail to understand and see it all?’