U- boldly and firmly grasped me by the shoulders. I even noticed how her fingers, responding to my emotion, trembled slightly.

“Sit down, dear, and don’t be upset. They say many things; must we believe them all? Moreover, if only you need me, I shall be near you on that day. I shall leave the schoolchildren with someone else and I shall stay with you, for you, dear, you too are a child and you need.⁠ ⁠…”

“No, no!” (I raised my hands in protest). “Not for anything! You really think then that I am a child and that I cannot do without a.⁠ ⁠… Oh, no! Not for anything in the world.” (I must confess I had other plans for that day!)

She smiled. The wording of that smile apparently was: “Oh, what a stubborn, what a stubborn boy!” She sat down, eyelids lowered. Her hands modestly busied themselves with fixing the fold of the unif which fell again between her knees, and suddenly, about something entirely different, she said: