The Inferno

dow. In the full, wise light of the autumn sun, I

her eyes. She reeled against the wall, leaned ther

she stood still, not daring to budge, holding in her arms the heavy delicate woman, her own face close

e servants were on the watch. I caught sight of the lan

They removed ornaments, unfolded

on the faces bending over her. They undressed her carefully. She let them handle her like a child. They fixed the bed. Her legs looked very thin and her set face seemed redu

er broke a

eginning

emained in the room. She looked and listened, filled with thoughts of motherho

g until evening, I heard the heart-rending wail r

listen. I renounced seeing so much truth. Then once more, with an

her forehead, in brave pr

culate, it was: "No,

t grown old in a few hours wit

some o

ng. Nature must be allo

ure does she

il, innocent woman who was a prey to stupendous nature, which crushed her, rolle

her rubber gloves. She waved her enormous red

ieved. My head grew heavy and I was sickened by the smel

scarcely more than the sound of a moving object, a light grating. It was the new being that had unloosened

that human beings undergo, I, at this first signal of human life, felt

ow quickly it w

.

was burning, the flame scarcely flickering. The clock, like a poor soul, was tic

turned toward the window. Bit by bit, she saw the eve

created, with a sort of ecstasy which redeemed her suffering, and

he joys and sorrows it would cause her. She smiled a

time that she did, and I saw her

contact with so much of the same sort of suffering, is not moved by it any more. The woman, who is too tender-hearted, never remembers it. Others who look on at travail have a sent

plunged in shadow. I could no longer see the m