My mistress gave vent to a cry of
terror, and fell on her hands, while I hastened from the room.
When I reached my room I was again attacked by fever and was obliged to
take to my bed. My wound had reopened and I suffered great pain.
Desgenais came to see me and I told him what had happened. He listened in
silence, then paced up and down the room as though undecided as to his
course. Finally he stopped before my bed and burst out laughing.
"Is she your first mistress?" he asked.
"No!" I replied, "she is my last."
Toward midnight, while sleeping restlessly, I seemed to hear in my dreams
a profound sigh. I opened my eyes and saw my mistress standing near my
bed with arms crossed, looking like a specter. I could not restrain a cry
of fright, believing it to be an apparition conjured up by my diseased
brain. I leaped from my bed and fled to the farther end of the room; but
she followed me.
"It is I!" said she; putting her arms around me she drew me to her.
"What do you want of me?" I cried. "Leave me! I fear I shall kill you!"
"Very well, kill me!" she said. "I have deceived you, I have lied to you,
I am an infamous wretch and I am miserable; but I love you, and I can not
live without you."
I looked at her; how beautiful she was! Her body was quivering; her eyes
languid with love and moist with voluptuousness; her bosom was bare, her
lips burning. I raised her in my arms.
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