Chapter 24

⁠​​​‌​​​​‌​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌‌​​​‌‌‌‌​​‌‌‌​‌‌​​​‌​​‌‌​‌⁠My sense of how he received this suffered for a minute from something that I can describe only as a fierce split of my attention—a stroke that at first, as I sprang straight up, reduced me to the mere blind movement of getting hold of him, drawing him close, and, while I just fell for support against the nearest piece of furniture, instinctively keeping him with his back to the window. The appeara