od;
for that I care not! You are a man, I know your falsity; I know that, like
others, you too would be capable of breaking your plighted troth; but I
did not know that so basely you could lie! I have been listening by your
uncle's door! So what about that child Zosia? Has she attracted your
regard? And do you traitorously lay claim to her! Hardly had you deceived
one unfortunate, when already beneath her very eyes you were seeking new
victims! Flee, but my curses will reach you--or remain, and I will publish
your perfidies to the world; your arts will no longer corrupt others as
they have corrupted me! Away! I despise you! You are a liar, a base man!"

At this insult, mortal for a gentleman's ears, the like of which no
Soplica had ever heard, Thaddeus trembled, and his face grew pale as that
of a corpse. Stamping his foot and biting his lips, he muttered, "Idiotic
woman!"

He walked away, but the epithet "base" echoed in his heart; the young man
shuddered, and felt that he had deserved it; he felt that he had inflicted
a great wrong on Telimena; his conscience told him that she had reproached
him justly: yet he felt that after those reproaches he loathed her more
violently than ever. Of Zosia, alas! he did not venture to think; he was
ashamed. However, that very Zosia, so lovely and so charming, his uncle
had been seeking to win for him! Perhaps she would have been his wife, had
not a demon, after entangling him in sin after sin, lie after lie, at last
bade him adieu with a mocking laugh. He was rebuked and scorned by all! In
a few short days he had ruined his future! He felt the just punishment of
his crime.

In this storm of feelings, like an anchor of rest there suddenly flashed
upon him the thought of the duel. "I must slay the Count, the scoundrel!"
he cried, "I must perish or be avenged!" But for what? That he did not
know himself. And that great burst of anger, as it had come over him in
the twinkling of an eye, so it vanished away; he was seized anew by a deep
sadness. He meditated whether his observation might not be true, that the
Count and Zosia had some mutual understanding. "And what of that? Perhaps
the Count sincerely loves Zosia; perhaps she loves him, and will choose
him for her husband! By what right could I desire to break off that
marriage; and, unhappy myself, to destroy the happiness of every one?"

He fell into despair and saw no other means except speedy flight. Whither?
To the grave!

So,