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you? Do I not have your agreement? But, naturally, it would only please you if I tied you up and said to him: ‘Do what you want with him.’
    ‘Are you mad!’ I screamed.
    ‘I am quite rational,’ she said, calmly. ‘I give you one last warning. Don’t put up any resistance, not now, when I’ve gone so far, and can go still further. I feel hatred for you and would love to see him beat you to death; I can still control myself but  …’
    Scarcely able to control myself I grabbed her by the waist and forced her to the floor so that she was kneeling before me.
    ‘Severin!’ she screamed, her face twisted with rage and fear
    ‘I’ll kill you if you become his wife,’ I threatened, and my voice was hoarse and hollow. ‘You’re mine, I won’t let you go, I love you too much,’ and I was embracing her, forcing her to me, and my right hand involuntarily groped for the dagger that was still sticking in my belt.
    Wanda looked at me with a strange, calm, inexplicable expression.
    ‘I like to see you like this,’ she said steadily, ‘now you are a man and at this moment I know that I still love you.’
    ‘Wanda  …’ Tears started to my eyes in joy, I bent over her and covered her lovely face with kisses, and then she burst out into loud, mischievous laughter and cried: ‘Have you enough of your ideal now? Are you pleased with me?’
    ‘What?’ I stammered, ‘You’re not serious?’
    ‘I am completely serious,’ she continued, ‘I love you, only you and you, you silly little fool, didn’t notice that it was all a joke, a game, and how difficult it was for me to beat you when I would have preferred to take you by the head and kiss you. But surely enough is enough? I played my cruel part much better than you expected, and now you’ll be happy to have your good, nice little wife, who is also quite pretty, I think, back again. We will live quite sensibly now and  …’
    ‘You, you will be my wife!’ I cried, transported in ecstasy.
    ‘Yes, your wife, you dear, good man!’ Wanda whispered, kissing my hands.
    I drew her to my breast.
    ‘So, you are no longer my slave Gregor, you are my dear Severin again, my husband.’
    ‘And him? Don’t you love him?’ I asked, agitated.
    ‘How could you think that I loved that crude fellow? But, then, you were quite confused, I was worried about you.’
    ‘I nearly killed myself on account of you.’
    ‘Really?’ she cried. ‘Oh, I’m still trembling at the thought of your being in the Arno.’
    ‘But you saved me,’ I said tenderly, ‘you were hovering over the waters, smiling, and your smile drew me back into life.’

    *        *        *        *
    It is truly a strange feeling to have her in my arms, her head on my breast; I kiss her, and she is smiling. It is as though I have woken from a feverish nightmare, or as though I was shipwrecked, fighting with the waves which threaten to engulf me, and finally I am thrown on to dry land.
    ‘I hate this town of Florence where you were so unhappy,’ she said as I wished her goodnight, ‘I wish to leave tomorrow. Please be good enough to write a few letters for me whilst I go into town to take my leave. Do you agree?’
    ‘Of course, my dear, good wife.’
    Early next morning she knocked on my door and asked me how I had slept. Her kindness is truly enchanting, and I would never have thought that she could be so gentle.
    She’s been away now for four hours; I finished the letters a long time ago and am sitting in the gallery looking down at the street to see if I can spot her carriage in the distance. I am somewhat concerned about her, yet, God knows, I have no cause for doubts or fears. Yet I can’t shake it off and it lies heavily upon me: perhaps it is the sufferings of the last few days which cast their shadows across my soul.
    But here she is, radiant with happiness and contentment.
    ‘Well, did all go according to plan?’ I asked, kissing her hand tenderly.
    ‘Yes,