Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Part IV - VI
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
when she tried to defend herself I seized her wrists and
forced her on her knees. She gave a terrified scream.
The temporary satisfaction which I had felt at my action
gave way to dismay, for the children, frightened to death,
cried out with fear. It was a horrible moment! It is
a crime, a most unnatural crime, to strike a woman, a
mother, in the presence of her children. It seemed to
me that the sun ought to hide his face.... I felt sick
to death.
And yet there was peace in my soul, like the calm after
a storm, a satisfaction such as is only derived from duty
done. I regretted my action, but I felt no remorse. My
deed had been as inevitable as cause and effect.
In the evening I saw her walking in the moonlit garden.
I joined her; I kissed her. She did not object; she burst
into tears. We talked for a few minutes, then she
accompanied me to my room and stayed with me until midnight.
How strange is life! In the afternoon I had struck
her. At night she held me in her arms and kissed me.
What an extraordinary woman she was, to kiss her
executioner with willing lips!
Why had I not known it before? If I had struck her
ten years ago I should now have been the happiest of
husbands.
Remember this, my brothers, if ever you are deceived
by a woman!
But she had no intention of foregoing her revenge.
A few days after this incident she came into my room,
began telling me a long, rambling story, and after endless
digressions gave me to understand that she had once, only
once, been violated; it had happened, she said, while on
her theatrical tour in Finland.
It was true, then!
She implored me not to think that it had happened
more than once; not to suspect her of having had a lover.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
