covered with vanishing cream, peered out from behind a bright pane of glass. But Tzu-chun walked on proudly without deigning to notice them and I would return as proudly to my room.
"I belong to myself and none of them has any right to interfere!" Her spirit of revolt appeared to be of the thoroughgoing kind, even more thoroughgoing, even more resolute than my own. What are Vanishing Cream and Flat Nose to her?
I can no longer remember distinctly how I professed to her my pure, true and passionate love. Not only have I forgotten now the details of that episode, but I had difficulty in recalling them even then. When I thought about it later in the same night, only fragments remained. A month or two after we began to live together, even these fragments became dream bubbles that eluded my grasp. I only recall that for more than ten days before it happened I carefully studied the various manners of approach, the sequence of my speech, not forgetting the possibility of her refusal. But when the time came, all that I had carefully rehearsed turned out to be unnecessary. In my nervousness I unconsciously adopted the method that I had seen in the motion pictures. Whenever I recalled it afterwards, I always had a feeling of embarrassment, yet in my memory this alone has found a permanent place. Even now it is like a lone lamp in a dark room, revealing the indelible scene: I kneel on one knee beside her; with tears in my eyes, I hold her hands in mine.
Not only have I forgotten what I said and did, but I was not even clearly aware of Tzu-chun's words and behavior: I only realized that she had given me her consent. I seem to remember vaguely that her face first became pale and then turned pink, a pink that I had never seen before and have
