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Rh Then the man murmured between his teeth:

"If you were a woman,—well, you would go this very evening to Mother Hurlot. She has herbs."

But the woman began to weep. And in her tears she groaned:

"Don’t say that; don’t say that! That brings bad luck." .

The man pounded the table, and cried:

"Must we, then, die, my God!"

The bad luck came. Four days later the woman had a miscarriage. . . a miscarriage? ... and died in the frightful pains of peritonitis.

And, when the man had finished his story, he said to me:

"So now here I am, all alone. No wife, no child, nothing. I really thought of revenging myself; yes, for a long time J thought of killing those three children that were playing on the lawn, although I am not wicked, J assure you. But that woman’s three children, I swear to you, I could have strangled with joy, with reaPjoy! Oh! yes. But then, I did not dare. What do you expect? We are afraid; we are cowards; we have courage only to suffer!"