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"But, more than him, I love that pain which I feel. &hellip;"

She rose in bed, as if to repel something that was weighing her down; then she sat propped up by her cushions and pillows.

"Do you imagine that in all this I had any idea of revengeful pleasure at Mme. Wildenhoff's disappointment, and for that reason made him tell me what he did? Not in the least. I wanted to drink my fill of pain; as in Spain they wave a red flag in bull-fights before the bloodshot eyes of the poor brute, to make him yet madder with rage and despair, so I wished to excite myself to the same delirious state.

"I do not wish for anything that can diminish the intensity of my anguish, I hate whatever could mitigate or deaden it. I love to gloat over the raw bleeding wounds, bare and unbandaged. &hellip;"

At that moment, the nurse tapped at the door, to ask whether Orcio might not come in to bid his mother good morning.

"No—no! shut the door! I will have no one here! Janka, you have not the least idea how I hate my son."