Just a little later I saw the result of our bold proximity, when we were woken, as it were, without having slept – Keklik's lips were aglow like a suddenly opened little crimson bud. Strange were my feelings from the sudden change which had occurred in the darkened room with my little guest in a space of time we were unaware of. Ah, how sweet it was – our childish ‘dream’.
Understandably, it was for me to see the guests to the country road, so I still had a long way to walk alongside Keklik. All the way, she looked at me stealthily, without taking her eyes off me. But all the time I looked away in confusion, fearing her grandmother might guess our terrible secret and punish us both. Only now and again, plucking up my boyish courage, did I manage to raise my eyes and respond to the little
