A bottle upset; he grasped at it hurriedly and knocked over another; the liquid gurgled out into a pool on the floor.
“A basin—quick, give me a basin! My silver nitrate ... quick, a basin!”
They reached about for one in haste and confusion.
“Open the door so we can see!” cried Hedvig. But at the same moment her father came towards them. His face looked as if smeared with blood in the light from the red-covered pane; his teeth showed between parted lips.
“You—you’re the serpent in the garden!” he hissed.
“Oh, don’t!” she cried, her voice rising to a scream.
Emanuel was beginning to cry. Hedvig tried to wriggle through with him to the door, but stepped on the basin her father had just set on the floor.
This was too much for Egholm. He felt he must either discharge the current within, or be fused by it, like an overcharged wire.
He staggered one step back, then forward again. His arms rose up as if with an inner force of their own; then with his full strength he struck his clenched fist in his wife’s face.