meet my own. And
like a flash of lightning, I understood. And I exclaimed: Ha! have I
found at last the question that thou canst not answer, and laid my
finger on the flaw in thy consummate skill? So then, this was all but
a comedy that thou wert playing, to shift the blame from thy own
shoulders and turn me over to extinction at the hands of Narasinha?
Ah! thou art thy own mistress, and not one to obey. But ah! thou
lovely lady that hast no pity for thy poisoned lovers, it is not the
lover this time that shall die. And thou shalt meet thy master for the
first time in thy life.

And I looked at her for a single instant in a frenzy of fierce hatred
that suddenly blazed up from the ashes of my dead devotion, lying
scorned and cheated and betrayed by the idol it adored. And I seized
her in the grip of death, and tore from my arm the lute-string that
was wound about my wrist. And I said: Dear, I never gave thee thy
music-lesson: but now I will give thee a very long one on a single
string. And in an instant, I twisted it about her neck, and drew it
tight, holding her still as she struggled, in an ecstasy of giant
strength. And so I stood, trembling all over, for a very long time.
And at last, I felt that she lay in my arms like a dead weight,
hanging as it were against her will in the terrible embrace of a lover
that loved with hatred instead of love.

And I laid her down very gently, turning carefully away, that I might
not see her face. And I went away very quickly, and all at once, as I
went, I fell down and began to sob, as if my heart would break. And at
last, after a long while, I got up, and stood, thinking, and looking
back under the trees. And I crept back on tiptoe, and looked and saw
her at a distance, lying in the moonlight, very still, like the tomb
of my own heart. And then I turned sharp round, and went away for
good and all, without a soul. And I said to myself in agony: Now I
have made the whole world empty with my own hand, and it was myself
that I have killed, as well as her. And now I will go after her as
soon as I possibly can. But there is one thing still to do, before I
go, for I have to give another lesson to Narasinha. Only this time I
will not use a lute-string, but crush out his soul with my bare hands.

* * * * *

Ha! Narasinha, I have told thee, and thou knowest all. And now thou
hast only to count the hours that are left to thee, for I am coming
very soon.