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CHAPTER XXVIII.
"
Strange thing! Again, when I had left my study, and was passing through
the familiar rooms, again the hope came to me that nothing had happened.
But the odor of the drugs, iodoform and phenic acid, brought me back to
a sense of reality.
"'No, everything has happened.'
"In passing through the hall, beside the children's chamber, I saw
little Lise. She was looking at me, with eyes that were full of fear. I
even thought that all the children were looking at me. As I approached
the door of our sleeping-room, a servant opened it from within, and
came out. The first thing that I noticed was HER light gray dress upon
a chair, all dark with blood. On our common bed she was stretched, with
knees drawn up.
"She lay very high, upon pillows, with her chemise half open. Linen had
been placed upon the wound. A heavy smell of iodoform filled the room.
Before, and more than anything else, I was astonished at her face, which
was swollen and bruised under the eyes and over a part of the nose. This
was the result of the blow that I had struck her with my elbow, when
she had tried to hold me back. Of beauty there was no trace left. I saw
something hideous in her. I stopped upon the threshold.
"'Approach, approach her,' said her sister.
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