It was not possible, however, to prolong the silence much longer.  A vague fear seized her.  Had she really lost all her dominating strength in the first moments of the first sincere passion she had ever felt?  Was she reduced to weakness by his presence, and unable so much as to sustain a fragmentary conversation, let alone suggesting to his mind the turn it should take?  She was ashamed of her poverty of spirit in the emergency.  She felt herself tongue-tied, and the hot blood rose to her face.  He was not looking at her, but she could not help fancying that he knew her secret embarrassment.  She hung her head and drew her veil down so that it should hide even her mouth.

But her trouble increased with every moment, for each second made it harder to break the silence.  She sought madly for something to say, and she knew that her cheeks were on fire.  Anything would do, no matter what.  The sound of her own voice, uttering the commonest of commonplaces, would restore her equanimity.  But that simple, almost meaningless phrase would not be found.  She would stammer, if she tried to speak, like a child that has forgotten its lesson and fears the schoolmaster as well as the laughter of its schoolmates.  It would be so easy if he would say something instead of walking quietly by her side, suiting his pace to hers, shifting his position so that she might step upon the smoothest parts of the ill-paved street, and shielding her, as it were, from the passers-by.  There was a courteous forethought for her convenience and safety in every movement of his, a something which a woman always feels when traversing a crowded thoroughfare by the side of a man who is a true gentleman in every detail of life, whether husband, or friend, or chance acquaintance.  For the spirit of the man who is really thoughtful for woman, as well as sincerely and genuinely respectful in his intercourse with them, is manifest in his smallest outward action.

While every step she took increased the violence of the passion which had suddenly swept away her strength, every instant added to her confusion.  She was taken out of the world in which she was accustomed to rule, and was suddenly placed in one where men are men, and women are women, and in which social conventionalities hold sway.  She began to be frightened.  The walk must end, and at the end of it they must part.  Since she had lost her power over him he might go away, for there would be nothing to bring him to her.  She wondered why he would not speak, and her terror increased.  She dared not look up, lest she should find him looking at her.

Then they emerged from the street and stood by the river, in a lonely place.  The heavy ice was gray with old snow in some places and black in others, where the great blocks had been cut out in long strips.  It was lighter here.  A lingering ray of sunshine, forgotten by the departing day, gilded the vast walls and turrets of venerable Hradschin, far above them on the opposite bank, and tinted the sharp dark spires of the half-built cathedral which crowns the fortress.  The distant ring of fast-moving skates broke the stillness.