seizing her by the shoulders and shaking her, shouting
into her ear: "Stop it, I say! Stop it!"

She looked up at him, out of her agony; then she fell
forward at his feet. She caught them in her hands, in
spite of his efforts to step aside, and with her face upon
the floor lay writhing. It made a choking in Jurgis's
throat to hear her, and he cried again, more savagely than
before: "Stop it, I say!"

This time she heeded him, and caught her breath and
lay silent, save for the gasping sobs that wrenched all her
frame. For a long minute she lay there, perfectly motion~
less, until a cold fear seized her husband, thinking that
she was dying. Suddenly, however, he heard her voice,
faintly: "Jurgis! Jurgis!"

"What is it?" he said.

He had to bend down to her, she was so weak. She
was pleading with him, in broken phrases, painfully ut~
tered: "Have faith in me! Believe me!"

"Believe what?" he cried.

"Believe that I -- that I know best -- that I love you!
And do not ask me -- what you did. Oh, Jurgis, please,
please! It is for the best -- it is--"

He started to speak again, but she rushed on frantically,
heading him off. "If you will only do it! If you will
only -- only believe me! It wasn't my fault -- I couldn't
help it -- it will be all right -- it is nothing -- it is no
harm. Oh, Jurgis -- please, please!"

She had hold of him, and was trying to raise herself to
look at him; he could feel the palsied shaking of her
hands and the heaving of the bosom she pressed against
him. She managed to catch one of his hands and gripped
it convulsively, drawing it to her face, and bathing it in
her tears. "Oh, believe me, believe me!" she wailed
again; and he shouted in fury, "I will not!"

But still she clung to him, wailing aloud in her despair:
"Oh, Jurgis, think what you are doing! It will ruin us
-- it will ruin us! Oh, no, you must not do it! No,
don't, don't do it. You must not do it! It will drive me
mad -- it will kill me -- no, no, Jurgis, I am crazy -- it is

[[177]]

p176 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p177w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p178

v?