“Are you sure?” I noticed her brows which rose to the temples in an acute angle⁠—like the sharp corners of an X. Again I was confused, casting a glance to the right, then to the left. To my right⁠—she, slender, abrupt, resistantly flexible like a whip, I-330 (I saw her number now). To my left, O- , totally different, made all of circles with a childlike dimple on her wrist; and at the very end of our row, an unknown he-Number, double-curved like the letter S. We were all so different from one another.⁠ ⁠…

The one to my right, I-330 , apparently caught my confused eye, for she said with a sigh, “Yes, alas!”

I don’t deny that this exclamation was quite in place, but again there was something in her face or in her voice.⁠ ⁠…