"Fortunately she will not have time for that now. Besides, even a thousand like her.... I don't care.... I know you will not believe that thousand but only me. For after all that happened yesterday, I am all yours, all, to the very end, as you wanted it. I am in your hands; you can now at any moment...." "What, 'at any moment?'" (But at once I understood what. My blood rushed to my ears and cheeks.) "Don't speak about that, you must never speak about that! The _other_ I, my former self ... but now...." "How do I know? Man is like a novel: up to the last page one does not know what the end will be. It would not be worth reading otherwise." She was stroking my head. I could not see her face but I could tell by her voice that she was looking somewhere very far into the distance; she hooked herself to that cloud which was floating silently, slowly, no one knows where to. Suddenly she pushed me away with her hand, firmly but tenderly. "Listen. I came to tell you that perhaps we are now ... our last days.... You know, don't you, that all Auditoriums are to be closed after tonight?" "Closed?" "Yes. I passed by and saw that in all Auditoriums preparations are going on: tables; medics all in white...." "But what does it all mean?" "I don't know. Nobody knows as yet. That is the worst of it. I only feel the current is on, the spark is jumping, and if not today, then tomorrow.... Yet perhaps they will not have time...." For a long while I have ceased to understand who are _they_ and who _we_. I do not understand what I want; do I want them to have or not to have enough time? One thing is clear to me: I-330 is now on the very edge, on the very edge, and in one second more.... "But it is folly," I said. "You, versus the United State! It is the same as if you should cover the muzzle of a gun with your hands and expect that way to prevent the shot.... It is absolute folly!" A smile. "'We must all go insane,--as soon as possible go insane.' It was yesterday, do you remember?" Yes, she was right; I had even written it down. Consequently it really took place. In silence I looked into her face. At that moment the dark cross was especially distinct. "I-, dear, before it is too late.... If you want ... I'll leave everything, I'll forget everything, and we'll go there beyond the Wall, to _them_.... I do not even know who they are...." She shook her head. Through the dark windows of her eyes I saw within her a flaming oven, sparks, tongues of flame and above them a heap of dry, tarry wood. It was clear to me that it was too late, my words could be of no avail. She stood up. She would soon leave. Perhaps these were the last days, or the last minutes.... I grasped her hand. "No, stay a little while longer ... for the sake ... for the sake...." She slowly lifted my hand towards the light, my hairy paw which I detest. I wanted to withdraw it but she held it tightly.