he was indifferent to everything. He was like that dream's
disinterested spectator who doesn't know what is going to happen next. Suddenly
for the first time in his life he had the soul-satisfying consciousness of
floating off into deep slumber.
    When he woke up after an hour, or a day, or a month, there was dusk in the
room; but he recognized it perfectly. It was his apartment in Doña Rita's house;
those were the familiar surroundings in which he had so often told himself that
he must either die or go mad. But now he felt perfectly clear-headed and the
full sensation of being alive came all over him, languidly delicious. The
greatest beauty of it was that there was no need to move. This gave him a sort
of moral satisfaction. Then the first thought independent of personal sensations
came into his head. He wondered when Therese would come in and begin talking. He
saw vaguely a human figure in the room but that was a man. He was speaking in a
deadened voice which had yet a preternatural distinctness.
    »This is the second case I have had in this house, and I am sure that
directly or indirectly it was connected with that woman. She will go on like
this leaving a track behind her and then some day there will be really a corpse.
This young fellow might have been it.«
    »In this case, Doctor,« said another voice, »one can't blame the woman very
much. I assure you she made a very determined fight.«
    »What do you mean? That she didn't want to ...«
    »Yes. A very good fight. I heard all about it. It is easy to blame her, but,
as she asked me despairingly, could she go through life veiled from head to foot
or go out of it altogether into a convent? No, she isn't guilty. She is simply -
what she is.«
    »And what's that?«
    »Very much of a woman. Perhaps a little more at the mercy of contradictory
impulses than other women. But that's not her fault. I really think she has been
very honest.«
    The voices sank suddenly to a still lower murmur and presently the shape of
the man went out of the room. Monsieur George heard distinctly the door open and
shut. Then he spoke for the first time, discovering, with a particular pleasure,
that it was quite easy to speak. He was even under the impression that he had
shouted:
    »