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At the hint he understood her

"Oh, yes," he said "Yes, yes, yes--you're right; you're right!"

And he saw all that Pestsov had been etting a glimpse of the terror of

an old maid's existence and its hu her, he felt that terror and huu with the chalk on the

table Her eyes were shining with a soft light Under the

influence of hertension of happiness

"Ah! I've scribbled all over the table!" she said, and, laying

down the chalk, she et up

"What! shall I be left alone--without her?" he thought with

horror, and he took the chalk "Wait awanted to ask you one thing"

He looked straight into her caressing, though frightened eyes

"Please, ask it"

"Here," he said; and he wrote the initial letters, _w, y, t, m, i,

c, n, b, d, t, m, n, o, t_ These letters meant, "When you told

me it could never be, did that mean never, or then?" There

seemed no likelihood that she could make out this coh his life depended on her

understanding the words She glanced at him seriously, then

leaned her puckered brow on her hands and began to read Once or

twice she stole a look at hi him, "Is it what

I think?"