A man sentenced to hang, standing on the gallows while the hood is put over his head, would have the same expression in his eyes as Anna had then—wide open and ready to glimpse the last moment of light. His wife had hidden behind her words of defiance an uncontrollable, primal emotion—the one that makes the baby cry in the cradle, because, even before knowing what life is, it already fears death.
“Oh, Anna, dear,” he murmured. “But you are frightened.”