From your smooth skin
there I could strip those rags, and call upon them all to look at you--my
wife--a felon's wife; mine to have and to hold--to hold, you hear!--as it
was sworn at the altar. I bare my heart to you, repenting, and you mock
it, torture it, with your undying hate and cruelty. You have no heart, no
life. This white bosom is all of you--all of your power to make men love
you--this, and your beauty. All else, by God, is cruel as the grave!"
His voice had sunk to a hoarse whisper. She had not sought to remove his
hand, nor struggled in the least; and once it seemed as if this new
development of his character, this animal fierceness, would conquer her:
she admired courage. It was not so. He trembled with weakness before he
had finished. He stopped too soon; he lost.
"You will find such parts exhausting to play," she murmured, as he let
her arm fall. "It needs a strong physique to endure exaggerated, nervous
sentiment. And now, please, let us perform less trying scenes." Then,
with a low, cold anger, she continued: "It is only a coward that will dog
a woman who finds his presence insupportable to her.
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