she whispered, ‘I would have gone to the other end of the world first – I can’t bear it, I can’t get over it� . And what is there before me!� Ah, I am wretched� . My God, how wretched I am!’

‘What for?’ I asked timidly.

Zina�da made no answer, she simply shrugged her shoulders. I remained kneeling, gazing at her with intense sadness. Every word she had uttered simply cut me to the heart. At that instant I felt I would gladly have given my life, if only she should not grieve. I gazed at her – and though I could not understand why she was wretched, I vividly pictured to myself, how in a fit of insupportable anguish, she had suddenly come out into the garden, and sunk to the earth, as though mown down by a scythe. It was all bright and green