truth now. Sleeping, the old memory revived in you of her whom waking
you will never remember again. But the look was there, and I bade you
awake. My soul rose in my eyes. I hung upon your lips. The loving word
I longed for seemed already to tremble in the air. Then came the
truth. You awoke, and your face was stone, calm, smiling, indifferent,
unloving. And all this Israel Kafka had seen, hiding like a thief almost
beside us. He saw it all, he heard it all, my words of love, my agony of
waiting, my utter humiliation, my burning shame. Was I cruel to him? He
had made me suffer, and he suffered in his turn. All this you did not
know. You know it now. There is nothing more to tell. Will you wait here
until he comes? Will you look on, and be glad to see me die? Will you
remember in the years to come with satisfaction that you saw the witch
killed for her many misdeeds, and for the chief of them all--for loving
you?”
The Wanderer had listened to her words, but the tale they told was
beyond the power of his belief. He stood still in his place, with folded
arms, debating what he should do to save her. One thing alone was clear.
She loved him to distraction. Possibly, he thought, her story was but an
invention to excuse her cruelty and to win his commiseration. It failed
to do either at first, but yet he would not leave her to her fate.
“You shall not die if I can help it,” he said simply.
“And if you save me, do you think that I will leave you?” she asked with
sudden agitation, turning and half rising from her seat. “Think what you
will be doing, if you save me. Think well. You say that Israel Kafka is
desperate. I am worse than desperate, worse than mad with my love.”
She sank back again and hid her face for a moment. He, on his part,
began to see the terrible reality and strength of her passion, and
silently wondered what the end would be. He, too, was human, and pity
for her began at last to touch his heart.
“You shall not die, if I can save you,” he said again.
She sprang to her feet very suddenly and stood before him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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