i didn t know what to do or where to go and somehow my feet started walking down the street across the bridge past the metropol cinema and do you know where no where right into the library the library can you imagine well how did you like it oh you ve never seen such a place so many books so much marble and so quiet and suddenly all of my confidence dribbled away with a pitiful plop my head was beginning to swim and my forehead was covered with cold perspiration i started to reach for a book and my hand automatically came to a stop i don t know how long i stood frozen a victim of panic and mortification oh how i wanted to flee when a kindly voice a gentle voice whispered pardon me pardon me  uh huh and there was this dear sweet clearly respectable thickly bespectacled man who stood by my side and quietly said to me ma am don t mean to intrude but i was just wondering are you need of some help i said no yes i am the next thing you know i m sipping hot chocolate and telling my troubles to paul whose tender brown eyes kept sending compassionate looks a trip to the library has made a new girl of me for suddenly i can see the magic of books i have to admit in the back of my mind i was praying he wouldn t get fresh and all of the while i was wondering why an illiterate girl should attract him then all of a sudden he said that i couldn t go wrong with the way of all flesh of course it s a novel but i didn t know or i certainly wouldn t have smacked him well he gave me a smile that i couldn t resist and i knew at once how much i liked this optometrist optometrist op tom e trist you know what this dear sweet slightly bespectacled gentlemen said to me next he said he could solve this problem of mine i said how he said if i d like he d willingly read to me some of his favourite things i said when he said now his novel approach seamed highly suspicious and possibly dangerous too i told myself wait think dare you go up to his flat what happens if things go wrong it s obvious he s quite strong he read to me all night long now how about that it s hard to believe how truly domestic and happily hopeful i feel i picture my paul there reading aloud as i cook as long as he s there to read there s quite a good chance indeed a chance that i ll never need to open a book unlike someone else someone i dimly recall i know he ll only have eyes for me my optometrist paul