sound which never fails to thrill the soul and move it to
responsive quivers!

Thrusting aside the foliage, I beheld before me the woman in the
yellow scarf. Seated with her back resting against the stem of a
hazel-bush, she had her head sunken deeply between her
shoulders, her mouth hideously agape, her eyes staring vaguely
before her, her hands pressed to her swollen stomach, her breath
issuing with unnatural vehemence, and her abdomen convulsively,
spasmodically rising and falling. Meanwhile from her throat were
issuing moans which at times caused her yellow teeth to show
bare like those of a wolf.

"What is the matter?" I said as I bent over her. "Has anyone
assaulted you?"

The only result was that, shuffling bare feet in the sand like a
fly, she shook her nerveless hand, and gasped:

"Away, villain! Away with you!"

Then I understood what was the matter, for I had seen a similar
case before. Yet for the moment a certain feeling of shyness
made me edge away from her a little; and as I did so, she uttered
a prolonged moan, and her almost bursting eyeballs vented hot,
murky tears which trickled down her tense and livid features.

Thereupon I turned to her again, and, throwing down cooking-pot,
teapot, and wallet, laid her on her back, and strove to bend her
knees upwards in the direction of her body. Meanwhile she sought