"Mademoiselle Therese," I said, "vous etes folle."
I believed she was crazy. She was cunning, too. I added an
imperious: "Allez," and with a strange docility she glided out
without another word. All I had to do then was to get dressed and
wait till eleven o'clock.
The hour struck at last. If I could have plunged into a light wave
and been transported instantaneously to Dona Rita's door it would
no doubt have saved me an infinity of pangs too complex for
analysis; but as this was impossible I elected to walk from end to
end of that long way. My emotions and sensations were childlike
and chaotic inasmuch that they were very intense and primitive, and
that I lay very helpless in their unrelaxing grasp. If one could
have kept a record of one's physical sensations it would have been
a fine collection of absurdities and contradictions. Hardly
touching the ground and yet leaden-footed; with a sinking heart and
an excited brain; hot and trembling with a secret faintness, and
yet as firm as a rock and with a sort of indifference to it all, I
did reach the door which was frightfully like any other commonplace
door, but at the same time had a fateful character: a few planks
put together--and an awful symbol; not to be approached without
awe--and yet coming open in the ordinary way to the ring of the
bell.
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