Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Part IV - VI
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That meant several times, several lovers.
“Then it is true that you have deceived me, and in
order to deceive the world, too, you have invented the
myth of my insanity. To hide your crime more
completely you meant to torture me to death. You are a
criminal. I have no longer any doubt of it. I shall
divorce you!”
She threw herself on her knees, weeping bitterly, and
asking me to forgive her.
“I’ll forgive you; nevertheless our marriage must be
annulled.”
On the following day she was very quiet; on the second
day she had regained her former self-possession; on the
third she behaved in every respect like an innocent woman.
Since she had confessed herself, she was more than
innocent; she was a martyr who treated me with insulting
condescension.
She did not realise the consequences of a crime such
as she had committed, and therefore she did not
understand my dilemma. If I continued to live with
her, I became a public laughing-stock; on the other
hand, to leave her spelled disaster also; my life was
ruined.
Ten years of martyrdom to be paid for with a few
blows and a day of tears. Was it fair?
For the last time I left my home, secretly, for I had
not the heart to say good-bye to the children.
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon I went on board a
steamer bound for Constance. I had decided to visit my
friends in France, and there to write the story of this
woman, the true representative of the age of the unsexed.
At the last moment Marie appeared on the
landingstage, tear-stained, excited, feverish, yet pretty enough
to turn the head of any man. But I remained cold,
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