He fills me with repulsion. And yet I do not know what there
is in my blood that draws me to him against my will. My flesh cries out
for him.'

Arthur looked away in embarrassment. He could not help a slight,
instinctive movement of withdrawal.

'Do I disgust you?' she said.

He flushed slightly, but scarcely knew how to answer. He made a vague
gesture of denial.

'If you only knew,' she said.

There was something so extraordinary in her tone that he gave her a quick
glance of surprise. He saw that her cheeks were flaming. Her bosom was
panting as though she were again on the point of breaking into a passion
of tears.

'For God's sake, don't look at me!' she cried.

She turned away and hid her face. The words she uttered were in a shamed,
unnatural voice.

'If you'd been at Monte Carlo, you'd have heard them say, God knows how
they knew it, that it was only through me he had his luck at the tables.
He's contented himself with filling my soul with vice. I have no purity
in me. I'm sullied through and through. He has made me into a sink of
iniquity, and I loathe myself. I cannot look at myself without a shudder
of disgust.'

A cold sweat came over Arthur, and he grew more pale than ever. He
realized now he was in the presence of a mystery that he could not
unravel. She went on feverishly.

'The other night, at supper, I told a story, and I saw you wince with
shame. It wasn't I that told it. The impulse came from him, and I knew it
was vile, and yet I told it with gusto. I enjoyed the telling of it; I
enjoyed the pain I gave you, and the dismay of those women. There seem to
be two persons in me, and my real self, the old one that you knew and
loved, is growing weaker day by day, and soon she will be dead entirely.
And there will remain only the wanton soul in the virgin body.'

Arthur tried to gather his wits together. He felt it an occasion on which
it was essential to hold on to the normal view of things.

'But for God's sake leave him. What you've told me gives you every ground
for divorce. It's all monstrous. The man must be so mad that he ought to
be put in a lunatic asylum.'

'You can do nothing for me,' she said.

'But if he doesn't love you, what does he want you for?'

'I don't know, but I'm beginning to suspect.'

She looked at Arthur steadily. She was now quite calm.

'I think he wishes to use me for a magical operation. I don't know if
he's mad or not. But I think he means to try some horr