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There was no mistake about it.
"First his god-like figure, then his phallus, which I knew so well, then—I almost fainted as my eyes fell upon it—on his fingers glittered the ring I had given him.
"She spoke again.
"He drew his hands from off his face.
"It was he! It was Teleny—my friend—my lover—my life!
"How can I describe what I felt? It seemed to me as if I was breathing fire; as if a rain of glowing ashes was being poured down upon me.
"The door was locked. I caught its handle, and shook it as a mighty whirlwind shakes the sails of some large frigate, and then tears them to shreds. I burst it open.
"I staggered on the sill. The floor seemed to be giving way under my feet; everything was spinning around me; I was in the very midst of a mighty whirlpool. I caught myself by the door-posts not to fall, for there, to my inexpressible horror, I found myself face to face with—my own mother!
"There was a threefold cry of shame, of
