The garden gate was opened rather hastily as though the wind had forced it. Irinel appeared. She looked all round, then, seeing me, she flew towards me. The breeze which she made by her flight fluttered her thin gown of white batiste with black spots.
She was pale. She took my hand. Her own trembled. She tried to speak, and said several times:
"Wait, wait, wait while I get my breath----"
Then she became silent and looked at me. Oh, what a look! Her eyes flashed sparks. Their blue depths seemed to me like an incomprehensible ocean, tempest driven, without bottom, without boundaries. I looked down, overwhelmed by an inexplicable fear, by a powerful emotion. I noticed my boots, and I thought to myself: "Have they cleaned my boots to-day or not? Of course, they must have. Don't they clean them every day?"
"Iorgu, do you know why that old man has come?"
"No," I answered her, with a stupid calm.
Had they cleaned my boots? Perhaps the dew was still on the grass.
"Iorgu, do you know what Father said to me?"
"Your foulard gown? The one I like so much?"
I continued, as I took out my handkerchief and flicked the dust from one of my boots:
"Of course I know. Isn't to-day a great festival?"
"Ah," she replied as she withdrew the hand I was holding, "you understand nothing! What an indifferent and non-understanding man you are!"
Indifferent? I understood everything from her look and her emotion, and with a calmness which I was certainly far from feeling I bent down and dusted the other boot.
"The old man has come, Irinel----" I said, glancing at her for a moment.
She was white, her lower lip quivered, the light in her eyes had darkened.
"The old man has come, Irinel. What then? He will dine with us? All the better. We shall be a bigger party at table."
Was it I speaking? There were only she and I in the garden.
"The old man has come, has come. Alas!" she replied, covering her eyes with both her hands. "The old man has come and some one is going to leave this house! He has----"
"Yes, he has learnt engineering!" Irinel replied angrily, and uncovered her crimson cheeks. "Yes, he has learnt en-gi-neer-ing, and some one is going to leave this house!"
I watched how she stood in the doorway, and then crossed it lightly as she wiped away her tears on a clean corner of her gown. I looked long after her, then I threw myself face upwards under one of the fruit-trees.