Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - The Young Countess
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only a child, a weak, innocent child, and you—to
kiss my hand! You have such a white and pure
soul. I will never again come near you, never again!
I bring death and desolation and destruction over
all the good and innocent. You shall not touch me!
I shrink from you as fire from water, you shall not
touch me!”
He put his hands behind his back.
“It is nothing to me now, Herr Berling. It is
nothing at all now. I beg your pardon, and I beg
you to let me kiss your hand!”
Gösta still kept his hands behind his back. He
considered the situation and moved nearer the door.
“If you will not receive the satisfaction my wife
offers you, I must fight you, Gösta Berling, and I must
also deal to her another and severer punishment.”
The Countess shrugged her shoulders. “He is
crazy with fear,” she whispered; “let me do as he
commands. What does it matter if I am humiliated?
It is what you wished from the first.”
“Did I wish it? Do you believe I wished that?
Well, if I have no hands to kiss, you must then
believe I never meant it,” he cried.
He sprang to the fire and plunged his hands in.
The flames wrapped round them, the skin crinkled,
the nails cracked, but Beerencreutz caught him by
the back of the neck at the same moment and flung
him out upon the floor. He stumbled against a chair
and remained sitting. He was almost ashamed now
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