“Are you going away already?” asked Valek.
“Yes.”
I was going because I could not, that day, play tranquilly with my
friends as before. The pure, childish affection I had felt for them was
sullied. Although the love I bore Valek and Marusia was not diminished,
there was now mingled with it a sharp current of pity that turned it to
a burning heartache. On reaching home I went to bed early because I did
not know where to lay this new feeling of pain with which my whole soul
was burning. I buried my head under my pillow and wept bitterly until
kindly sleep at last came with her soft breath to blow away my grief.