She looked at him, smiling; but all at once her brows twitched, she threw up her head, and going quickly up to him, clutched his hand and pressed close up to him, breathing her hot breath upon him.

She was in pain and was, as it were, complaining to him of her suffering.

And for the first minute, from habit, it seemed to him that he was to blame.

But in her eyes there was a tenderness that told him that she was far from reproaching him, that she loved him for her sufferings.