stool and the
fly agaric--and remain alive and well. There was something wrong about
it. Or there had been some mistake. But _he_ had made no mistake--no,
most certainly not, he protested, grasping her hands.

It was as though a stream of longing and love, of despairing, impotent,
all-yielding, all forgetting passion were flowing from him to her.

But she remained cool. "My stepson is coming to-day," she remarked.

Then he burst into tears, and falling on his knees before her he
pressed her hands, which she had to give up to him, against his face,
and kissed them as though he were mad. It was so long since he had
enjoyed the sight of her. But now her nearness overpowered him
entirely, and he had no longer the strength to struggle against
anything. He stammered words full of frantic, jealous passion and
sobbed.

"Let my hands go," she said impatiently, endeavouring to free them.
"Let them go, I tell you. How can you kiss these hands"--she laughed
strangely--"hands that wanted to give Mr. Tiralla rat poison this
morning. If the poultry had died from eating the corn this morning, he
would by now have lain dead from taking the same poison."

He was not listening to what she was saying. Let her accuse herself,
let others accuse her, she was still his sun, his heaven, his highest
aim. And he would [Pg 184] never, never, never leave her in the lurch.
If she wished it, he would swear it by all the saints. If only she had
asked his advice about this too. The poultry had not died from eating
the poisoned wheat she had scattered, because--he had once read it
somewhere--because strychnine, that fearful poison which kills rats at
once, does not harm chickens.

"And human beings?" she interrupted him passionately. She seized hold
of the man's shoulders as he knelt before her and stared at his face,
which he had raised to hers with a look full of fervour. "What about
human beings?"

"Human beings die of it."

Then she let go of his shoulders and with a loud cry put her hands
before her face and ran frantically up and down the room like an
imprisoned, impotent animal, that would like to dash through the walls.

The man stared at her in astonishment; why was she so beside herself?
She knew that rat poison also killed human beings?

She did not answer him. But when he put his arms round her she feebly
let her head sink on his shoulder. But only for a few moments, and when
he wanted to kiss her she pushed him away. "Go, go--co