"How you frightened me then!"
He looked at her a moment, which seemed to her an age—and simply replied:
"I understand it."
There was no longer any uncertainty. Bertha saw only too well in her husband's eyes that he knew something. But what—how much? She nerved herself to go on:
"Are you still suffering?"
"No."
"Then why did you get up?"
He raised himself upon his pillow, and with a sudden strength, he continued:
"I got up to tell you that I have had enough of these tortures, that I have reached the limits of human energy, that I cannot endure one day longer the agony of seeing myself put to death slowly, drop by drop, by the hands of my wife and my best friend!"
He stopped. Hector and Bertha were thunderstruck. "I wanted to tell you
also, that I have had enough of your cruel caution, and that I suffer.
Ah, don't you see that I suffer horribly? Hurry, cut short my agony!
Kill me, and kill me at a blow—poisoners!"