"
She made a sign with her head that she knew; Heyst's insistence brought
Ricardo vividly before her mental vision. A sudden languor, like the
physical echo of her struggle with the man, paralysed all her limbs.
She lay still in the chair, feeling very frightened at this
phenomenon--ready to pray aloud for strength.
Heyst had started to pace the room.
"Our guest! There is a proverb--in Russia, I believe--that when a
guest enters the house, God enters the house. The sacred virtue of
hospitality! But it leads one into trouble as well as any other."
The girl unexpectedly got up from the chair, swaying her supple figure
and stretching her arms above her head. He stopped to look at her
curiously, paused, and then went on:
"I venture to think that God has nothing to do with such a hospitality
and with such a guest!"
She had jumped to her feet to react against the numbness, to discover
whether her body would obey her will. It did. She could stand up, and
she could move her arms freely. Though no physiologist, she concluded
that all that sudden numbness was in her head, not in her limbs. Her
fears assuaged, she thanked God for it mentally, and to Heyst murmured a
protest:
"Oh, yes! He's got to do with everything--every little thing. Nothing
can happen--"
"Yes," he said hastily, "one of the two sparrows can't be struck to the
ground--you are thinking of that.
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