Conscience -- Volume 2

ed about his room without paying attention to what he was doing, as if he were in a state of somnambulism, and it astonished hi

ed on the mantel, he received a shock that annihilated his tor

t of early morning. It was a strong instrument that, in a firm hand,

second wing of the building, he mounted to Caffie's apartment without being seen, and with this knife he cut his throat. It was as simple as it was easy, and this knif

e when still remained vague and uncertain. But now the day and the means

of his torpor and

ess. Did he know or did he not know what

the brain? Were there hours when the right hemisphere is master of our will, and were there other hours when the left is master? Did one of these hemispheres possess what the other lacked, and is it according to the activity of this or that one, that one has such a character or such a t

this psychological question! It was of Caffie that he should think, and of the plan which in

t appeared, and to insure the success of his plan a combination of

or down the stairs? Would Caffie be alone? Would he ope

hat he had not thought of before

d not throw himself giddily into an

hich he found himself he could not think of work, he gave himself up to t

walked straight before him through the st

out being disturbed each instant by people in a hurry, for whom he must make way, or by

nd, as they loomed up before him, he asked himself whether he

is impo

gainst the impossible: he should have had

his steps. Of what use was it to go farther? He had no need to reflect nor to

er these dangers were such as he saw them, and whether he we

er on going up-stairs or coming down; and, also, she might not observe him. T

limb the five stories and to descend. If one watched from the street when, at dusk, she left her lodge with a wax taper in her hand, and mounted the stairs behind her, at a little distance, in such a way as to be on the landing of the first story when she

is imp

h composure, without permitting himself to be influenced by any

f Paris. In the country, in the fields or woods, he could find the calm that was indispen

aint Honore; he followed a street that would bring hi

onclusion that what had appeared impossible to him was not so. If he preserved his calmness, and did no

of not finding Caffie at home, or, at least, not alone; or the bell might ring at the decisive moment. But, as everything depended upon chance, these circumstance

gers, was how he should justify the coming into his hands of a sum of money which, providenti

cted his attention, and he stopped. Although the weather was damp and cold under the influence of a strong west wind ch

least the second? With this loan he paid his debts, if he were questioned on this point. To prove this loan he need only to sign a receipt which he could place in the safe, and which would be found there. Would not the

was only a loan. Later he would return these three thousand francs

ed paper, and as he had asked the price the previou

d some bread and cheese and wine. But if he drank little,

le to the unpleasantness of slipping on the soft soil, and walked hither and thither, his onl

irst supposed. Do not the dealers of stamped paper often number their paper? With this number it would be easy to find the dealer and him who had bought it. And then, was it not likely that

escaped one danger

n imagining that the execution of the idea that had come to him while picking up the knife

eded to cope with these dangers, and on this ground hesitation was not possible; to wish t

y, a heavy shower forced him to take shelter, and he watched the falling rain, asking himself if this accident, which he had not foreseen, would not upset his plan. A man who had received the force

ve he reached his home. There remained fifteen or twen

ing placed it between the folded leaves of a newspaper, i