Mary
Mary kept her promise and came to see me three times from Peredelkino. And at the beginning of November she returned from the sanatorium for good. She looked devilishly attractive and fresh – the rest had done her good. She had not put on weight, she had even got a little thinner, but her eyes radiated with some extraordinary inner light, making her face still more comely and her mood was elated and excitable.
On the very first evening Mary helped me wash my hair, and she gained some experience of this, as she did it on each of her visits. In two months my curls had grown so, they formed an impenetrable thicket on my head. The washing took place as follows: I stood, leaning over the bath, and held my chest, where under the bandages my heart beat hurriedly and joyfully, while Mary so
