"Henryk! He! he! he! Tsss!" "What art thou doing?" asked I, in ill-humor. "Tss! as I love mamma! he! he! Selim is kneeling before Hania in the hop arbor. As I love mamma!" I caught him immediately by the arms and drove my fingers into them. "Be silent! Stay here! Not a word to anybody, dost understand? Stay here! I will go myself; but be silent, not a word before any one, if thy life is dear to thee." Kazio, who from the beginning had considered the whole affair on the humorous side, seeing the corpse-like pallor that covered my face, was evidently frightened, and stood on the spot with open mouth; but I ran on, as if mad, toward the arbor. Crawling forward quickly and silently as a serpent, between the barberry bushes which surrounded the arbor, I worked myself up to the very wall; the wall was made of small short bits of sticks, so I could hear and see everything. The repulsive rôle of a listener did not seem repulsive at all to me. I pushed aside the leaves very delicately and thrust forward my ear. "There is some one near by!" said the low, suppressed whisper of Hania. "No; only leaves moving on the branches," answered Selim. I looked at them through the green veil of the leaves. Selim was not kneeling near Hania now; he was sitting at her side on a low bench. She was as pale as linen; her eyes were closed, her head inclined and resting on his shoulder. He had encircled her waist with his arm, and drawn her toward him with love and delight. "I love, Hania! I love! I love!" repeated he, whispering passionately; and inclining his head he sought her lips with his. She drew back, as if warding off the kiss, but still their lips met and remained joined in that manner long, long; it seemed to me whole ages. And then I thought that all which they had wished to say to each other they said in that kiss. Some sort of shame stopped their words. They had daring enough for kisses, but not enough for speech. A deathlike silence reigned, and amid that silence there came to me merely their quick and passionate breathing. I seized the wooden grating of the arbor with my hands, and feared lest I might crush it into bits with that convulsive pressure. It grew dark in my eyes; I felt a turning of the head; the earth flew somewhere from under me into a bottomless pit. But even at the price of my life I wished to hear what they were saying; hence I mastered myself again, and catching the air with parched lips, with forehead pressed to the grating, I listened, counting every breath which they drew. Silence continued some time yet. At last Hania began in a whisper,-- "Enough, enough! I dare not look you in the eyes. Let us leave this." And turning her head aside, she tried to tear herself out of his arms. "Oh, Hania! what is taking place in me? I am so happy!" cried Selim. "Let us go from here. Some one will come." Selim sprang up with gleaming eyes and distended nostrils.