She was trying to fall
on me with all her weight. Old man, she wanted to kiss me, and I
didn't want--it was terrible. She seemed to be saying to me, 'You
wanted to kiss me, well then, come, come now!' She had on her--she
had there, fastened on, the remains of a bunch of flowers, and that
was rotten, too, and the posy stank in my nose like the corpse of
some little beast. "I had to take her in my arms, in both of them,
and turn gently round so that I could put her down on the other
side. The place was so narrow and pinched that as we turned, for a
moment, I hugged her to my breast and couldn't help it. with all my
strength, old chap, as I should have hugged her once on a time if
she'd have let me.
"I've been half an hour cleaning myself from the touch of her and
the smell that she breathed on me in spite of me and in spite of
herself. Ah, lucky for me that I'm as done up as a wretched
cart-horse!"
He turns over on his belly, clenches his fists, and slumbers, with
his face buried in the ground and his dubious dream of passion and
corruption.
18
A Box of Matches
IT is five o'clock in the evening. Three men are seen moving in the
bottom of the gloomy trench. Around their extinguished fire in the
dirty excavation they are frightful to see, black and sinister. Rain
and negligence have put their fire out, and the four cooks are
looking at the corpses of brands that are shrouded in ashes and the
stumps of wood whence the flame has flown.
Pages:
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255