Page:Sologub Sweet Scented Name.djvu/130

 soul, and more powerfully there arose in him the lust for torture—the evil and mean infection.

"I endured all this," continued the lady, "and never once did I complain. Even my spirit was unmurmuring. But one day in Spring-time I became just as weak as he. A strong desire arose in me that he should die. Perhaps his cruelty was greater just then, or it may be that the beautiful white nights of Spring acted upon me in this way. I don't know how the desire arose within me. So strange it was! I had never before been weak or wicked. Some days I struggled with the shameful wish. I sat at the window at night, and looked out at the quiet twilight of the night of our northern city, and in grief and anger I pressed my hands together and thought with insistent evil force, 'Die, cursed one, die!' And it happened that he did die suddenly, on this very day, exactly at two o'clock. But I didn't kill him—oh, don't think it was I who killed him."

"Mercy on us, I don't think it!" said Kragaef, though his voice sounded almost angry.

"He died of his own accord," continued she. "Or perhaps it was the force of my will that sent him to his grave. Perhaps the