"Wonderful to say, when I left my study and went through the familiar rooms, the hope that nothing had happened again awoke in me; but the smell of that doctor's nastiness -- iodoform and carbolic -- took me aback. ‘No, it had happened. ' Going down the passage past the nursery I saw little Lisa. She looked at me with frightened eyes. It even seemed to me that all the five children were there and all looked at me. I approached the door, and the maid opened it from inside for me and passed out. The first thing that caught my eye was her light-grey dress thrown on a chair and all stained black with blood. She was lying on one of the twin beds (on mine because it was easier to get at), with her knees raised. She say in a very sloping position supported by pillows, with her dressing jacket unfastened. Something had been put on the wound. There was a heavy smell of iodoform in the room. What struck me first and most of all was her swollen and bruised face, blue on part of the nose and under the eyes. This was the result of the blow with my elbow when she had tried to hold me back. There was nothing beautiful about her, but something repulsive as it seemed to me. I stopped on the threshold. ‘Go up to her, do,' said her sister. ‘Yes, no doubt she wants to confess,' I thought. ‘Shall I forgive her? Yes, she is dying and may be forgiven,' I thought, trying to be magnanimous. I went up close to her. She raised her eyes to me with difficulty, one of them was black, and with an effort said falteringly:
" ‘You've got your way, killed. ' and through the look of suffering and even the nearness of death her face had the old expression of cold animal hatred that I knew so well. ‘I shan't. let you have. the children, all the same. She' (her sister) ‘will take.'
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