Page:Nalkowska - Kobiety (Women).djvu/149

Rh near me all the time. Later, he justified himself by saying that he could have been of no use, and was himself far too sensitive to bear the sight of suffering.

"Finally, when all danger was over, and Orcio was making the house ring with the noise he made, there was the same night over again; and he was again 'a little flushed with wine,' and 'guilty of no offense'; again I was 'his only love.' And later, the same scene was repeated over and over, and at shorter intervals. And this day &hellip; it is just as usual. &hellip;

"And now I am looking into the very bottom of my soul. Have you ever seen it? An open coffin, in which there are no worms, there is no corruption. Only patches of colour, continually fading and changing and reviving, and forming lovely, lovely stars—just as in a kaleidoscope. And these hues glisten like the scales of a serpent which rolls and coils itself in ecstasy."

A smile passed over her face. Then she gave a long shudder and closed her eyes fast. Starting up on a sudden, she joined her hands behind her bare and shapely neck.

"If you knew, Janka," she whispered, "if