"Help me!"
And she imparted to me the violent shocks of her great pain. A flood of hate mounted from the deepest roots of my being, rose even to my hands in a homicidal impulse. That impulse came before its time; but the vision of the crime already consummated lit up my inner consciousness like a flash. "You shall not live!"
"Ah! Tullio, Tullio! Suffocate me! Kill me! I cannot stand it, I cannot stand it, you hear; no, I cannot stand it, I do not want to suffer any longer."
She cried savagely, looking around her wildly as if seeking something or someone from whom she could obtain the aid I was powerless to render her.
"Calm yourself, Juliana; calm yourself. Perhaps the time has come! Be brave! Take this chair. Be brave, my dear soul! A little more patience! See, I am near you. Do not be afraid."
I ran to the bell. "The doctor! the doctor! Tell him to come immediately."
Juliana ceased her lamentations. All at once she seemed to cease suffering, or at least to be unconscious of her condition, in the abstraction of other thoughts. It was evident that she was meditating something. I scarcely had time to remark this instantaneous change.
"Listen, Tullio. Suppose I become delirious...."
"What do you mean?"
"Suppose later, when fever sets in, I become delirious; suppose I die raving——"