As I climbed swiftly up the vineyard path I caught sight of a light in
Acia’s room.… This reassured me a little.
I went up to the house. The door below was fastened. I knocked. A
window on the ground floor was cautiously opened, and Gagin’s head
appeared.
‘Have you found her?’ I asked.
‘She has come back,’ he answered in a whisper. ‘She is in her own room
undressing. Everything is all right.’
‘Thank God!’ I cried, in an indescribable rush of joy. ‘Thank God! now
everything is right. But you know we must have another talk.’
‘Another time,’ he replied, softly drawing the casement towards him.
‘Another time; but now good-bye.’
‘Till to-morrow,’ I said. ‘To-morrow everything shall be arranged.’
‘Good-bye;’ repeated Gagin. The window was closed. I was on the point
of knocking at the window. I was on the point of telling Gagin there
and then that I wanted to ask him for his sister’s hand. But such a
proposal at such a time.… ‘To-morrow,’ I reflected, ‘to-morrow I shall
be happy.…’
To-morrow I shall be happy! Happiness has no to-morrow, no yesterday;
it thinks not on the past, and dreams not of the future; it has the
present--not a day even--a moment.
I don’t remember how I got to Z. It was not my legs that carried me,
nor a boat that ferried me across; I felt that I was borne along by
great, mighty wings. I passed a bush where a nightingale was singing. I
stopped and listened long; I fancied it sang my love and happiness.