d the table,
bringing nearer to us the breadth of his shoulders, the thickness of
his neck, and that incongruous, anchorite head, burnt in the desert,
hollowed and lean as if by excesses of vigils and fasting. His beard
flowed imposingly downwards, out of sight, between the two brown hands
gripping the edge of the table, and his persistent glance made sombre by
the wide dilations of the pupils, fascinated.

"Imagine to yourselves," he said in his ordinary voice, "that I have
eaten man."

I could only ejaculate a faint "Ah!" of complete enlightenment. But
Hermann, dazed by the excessive shock, actually murmured, "Himmel! What
for?"

"It was my terrible misfortune to do so," said Falk in a measured
undertone. The girl, unconscious, sewed on. Mrs. Hermann was absent
in one of the state-rooms, sitting up with Lena, who was feverish; but
Hermann suddenly put both his hands up with a jerk. The embroidered
calotte fell, and, in the twinkling of an eye, he had rumpled his hair
all ends up in a most extravagant manner. In this state he strove to
speak; with every effort his eyes seemed to start further out of their
sockets; his head looked like a mop. He choked, gasped, swallowed, and
managed to shriek out the one word, "Beast!"

From that moment till Falk went out of the cabin the girl, with her
hands folded on the work lying in her lap, never took her eyes off him.
His own, in the blindness of his heart, darted all over the cabin, only
seeking to avoid the sight of Hermann's raving. It was ridiculous, and
was made almost terrible by the stillness of every other person present.
It was contemptible, and was made appalling by the man's over-mastering
horror of this awful sincerity, coming to him suddenly, with the
confession of such a fact. He walked with great strides; he gasped. He
wanted to know from Falk how dared he to come and tell him this? Did he
think himself a proper person to be sitting in this cabin where his wife
and children lived? Tell his niece! Expected him to tell his niece!
His own brother's daughter! Shameless! Did I ever hear tell of such
impudence?--he appealed to me. "This man here ought to have gone and
hidden himself out of sight instead of..."

"But it's a great misfortune for me. But it's a great misfortune for
me," Falk would ejaculate from time to time.

However, Hermann kept on running frequently against the corners of the
table. At last he lost a slipper, and crossing his arms on his breast,