Schontz
would go on and on under its breath like that of an unclean priest
reciting from his breviary in the corner of a railway-carriage. That
was how it presented itself to me.
They seemed to take no notice of me; I don't suppose that I was
even addressed by one of them. But, as long as one or the other, or
all three of them were there, they stood between me as if, I being
the titular possessor of the corpse, had a right to be present at their
conferences. Then they all went away and I was left alone for a
long time.
And I thought nothing; absolutely nothing. I had no ideas; I had no
strength. I felt no sorrow, no desire for action, no inclination to go
upstairs and fall upon the body of my wife. I just saw the pink
effulgence, the cane tables, the palms, the globular match-holders,
the indented ash-trays. And then Leonora came to me and it
appears that I addressed to her that singular remark:
"Now I can marry the girl."
But I have given you absolutely the whole of my recollection of
that evening, as it is the whole of my recollection of the
succeeding three or four days. I was in a state just simply
cataleptic. They put me to bed and I stayed there; they brought me
my clothes and I dressed; they led me to an open grave and I stood
beside it.
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