I was walking along and singing. I had spent the day in the country. I don’t remember ever having experienced such happy moments before. You were … However, I may have been mistaken. Please, forgive me, if I remind you of it, but I thought you were crying, and I—I couldn’t bear to hear it—I felt miserable about it. But, goodness, had I no right to feel anxious about you? Was it wrong of me to feel a brotherly compassion for you? I’m sorry, I said compassion … Well, what I meant was that I couldn’t possibly have offended you because I had an impulse to go up to you, could I?”

“Don’t say anything more, please,” said the girl pressing my hand and lowering her head. “I’m to blame for having started talking about it. But I’m glad I was not mistaken in you. Well, I’m home now. I live in that lane, only two steps from here. Goodbye and thank you.”

“But shall we never see each other again? Surely, surely, you can’t mean it. Surely, this can’t be our last meeting?”

“Well, you see,” the girl said, laughing, “at first you only asked for two words, and now.… However, I don’t think I’d better make any promises. Perhaps we’ll meet again.”

“I’ll be here tomorrow,” I said. “Oh, I’m sorry, I seem to be already making demands.…”

“Yes, you are rather impatient, aren’t you? You’re almost making demands.…”

“Listen to me, please, listen to me!” I interrupted. “You won’t mind if I say something to you again, something of the same kind, will you? It’s this: I can’t help coming here tomorrow. I am a dreamer. I know so little of real life that I just can’t help re-living such moments as these in my dreams, for such moments are something I have very rarely experienced. I am going to dream about you the whole night, the whole week, the whole year. I’ll most certainly come here tomorrow. Yes, here, at this place and at this hour. And I shall be happy to remember what happened to me today. Already this place is dear to me. I’ve two or three places like this in Petersburg. Once I even wept because I remembered something, just as you—I mean, I don’t know of course, but perhaps you too were crying ten minutes ago because of some memory. I’m awfully sorry, I seem to have forgotten myself again. Perhaps you were particularly happy here once.…”

“Very well,” said the girl, “I think I will come here tomorrow, also at ten o’clock. And I can see that I can’t possibly forbid you to come, can I? You see, I have to be here. Please don’t imagine that I am making an appointment with you. I hope you’ll believe me when I say that I have got to be here on some business of my own. Oh, very well, I’ll be frank with you: I shan’t mind at all if you come here too.