I reached for it without considering how unsafely I was
lying there, when suddenly I felt myself slipping down. The
sensation cannot be described. While my right hand reached for the
pearls which were dropping down into the gorge, my left caught
hold of the turf on the brink. I was losing my balance and nothing
held me up but a few blades of grass. I felt my heart in my
throat, and a cold perspiration over my whole body. Now the grass
was giving way, now I clawed my fingers down into the earth and
dug my feet into it, but it was too hard; I tried to press my
knees down into the turf--nothing helped, I was slipping. Life or
death! To the right there was a stone. I let go of the grass, and
blindly swung my body to the right, my feet slipped beyond the
edge,--but my hands had caught hold of the stone. When I got to
the edge again, I lay in a stupour for a long time, and I did not
know whether I was at the bottom of the gorge or at the top.--
Never have I loved life as I do to-day.
INGOLF. How horrible! But what made you wear the pearls?
HADDA PADDA. It was foolish, but I don't know whether you can
blame me.
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