air of youthful precocity, as of one who had grown rapidly, and who was
now almost ripe. He no longer moved, overcome with surprise, with a pang
of desire, holding his breath with a strange poignant emotion. He
remained there, his heart beating as if one of his sensual dreams had
just been realized, as if an impure fairy had conjured up before him
this creature so disturbing to his blood, so very young this little
rustic Venus, was born in the waves of the sea.

Suddenly the little girl came out of the water, and without seeing came
over to where he stood looking for her clothes in order to dress
herself. While she was gradually approaching with little hesitating
steps, through fear of the sharp pointed stones, he felt himself pushed
towards her by an irresistible force, by a bestial transport of passion,
which stirred up all his flesh, stupefied his soul, and made him tremble
from head to foot.

She remained standing some seconds behind the willow tree which
concealed him from view. Then, losing his reason entirely, he opened the
branches, rushed on her, and seized her in his arms. She fell, too
scared to offer any resistance, too much terror-stricken to cry out, and
he possessed her without understanding what he was doing.

He woke up from his crime, as one wakes out of a nightmare. The child
burst out weeping.

He said:

"Hold your tongue! Hold your tongue! I'll give you money."

But she did not hear him, she went on sobbing.

He went on:

"Come now, hold your tongue! Do hold your tongue. Keep quiet."

She still kept shrieking, writhing in the effort to get away from him.
He suddenly realized that he was ruined, and he caught her by the neck
to stop her mouth from uttering these heartrending, dreadful screams. As
she continued to struggle with the desperate strength of a being who is
seeking to fly from death, he pressed his enormous hands on the little
throat swollen with cries, and in a few seconds he had strangled her so
furiously did he grip her, without intending to kill her but only to
make her keep silent.

Then he rose up overwhelmed with horror.

She lay before him with her face bleeding and blackened. He was going to
rush away when there sprang up in his agitated soul the mysterious and
undefined instinct that guides all beings in the hour of danger.

It was necessary to throw the body into the water; but another impulse
drove him towards the clothes, of which he made a thin parcel. Then as
h