He caught hold of her arm and pressed it tightly.
"Do you hear me, I say? I want you to give me an answer when I speak to you."
Then, she said, in nervous tones.
"I think you must be going mad! Let me alone!"
He trembled with fury, so exasperated that he scarcely knew what he was saying, and, shaking her with all his strength, he repeated.
"Do you hear me? do you hear me?"
She wrenched herself out of his grasp with a sudden movement, and with the tips of her fingers slapped her husband on the nose. He entirely lost his temper, feeling that he had been struck, and angrily pounced down on her.
He now held her under him, boxing her ears in a most violent manner, and exclaiming:
"Take that—and that—and that—there you are, you trollop!"
Then, when he was out of breath, exhausted from beating her, he got up, and went over to the chest of drawers to get himself a glass of sugared orange-water for he was almost ready to faint after his exertion.