I had nothing to offer you but myself." "It were best so," said Vjera in a low voice.
The Count was silent.

There was something in her manner which he could not understand, or rather, as he fancied, there was something in his own brain which prevented him from understanding a very simple matter, and he grew impatient with himself.

At the same time he felt more and more strongly drawn to the young girl at his side.

As the sun went down and the evening shadows deepened, he saw more in her face than he had been accustomed to see there.

Every line of the pale features so familiar to his sight in his everyday life, reminded him of moments in the recent past when he had been wretchedly unhappy, and when the kindly look in Vjera's face had comforted him and made life seem less unbearable.