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III
THE ASPERN PAPERS
35
chance. 'Well, don't you be proud,' I contented myself with saying. 'Don't hide from me altogether.'
'Oh, I must stay with my aunt,' she returned, without looking at me. And at the same moment, abruptly, without any ceremony of parting, she quitted me and disappeared, leaving me to make my own way downstairs. I remained a while longer, wandering about the bright desert (the sun was pouring in) of the old house, thinking the situation over on the spot. Not even the pattering little serva came to look after me and I reflected that after all this treatment showed confidence.
