"I had seen you two; I was there, in the shrubbery. I was angry! If I
could I should have killed you both!

"I said to myself: 'He shall not marry Suzanne, never! He shall marry
no one. I should be too unhappy.' And all of a sudden I began to hate
him dreadfully.

"Then, dost thou know what I did? Listen. I had seen the gardener
making little balls to kill strange dogs. He pounded up a bottle with a
stone and put the powdered glass in a little ball of meat.

"I took a little medicine bottle that mamma had; I broke it small with
a hammer, and I hid the glass in my pocket. It was a shining powder ...
The next day, as soon as you had made the little cakes ... I split
them with a knife and I put in the glass ... He ate three of them ...
I too, I ate one ... I threw the other six into the pond. The two swans
died three days after ... Dost thou remember? Oh, say nothing ...
listen, listen. I, I alone did not die ... but I have always been
sick. Listen ... He died--thou knowest well ... listen ... that, that
is nothing. It is afterwards, later ... always ... the worst ... listen.

"My life, all my life ... what torture! I said to myself: 'I will never
leave my sister. And at the hour of death I will tell her all ...'
There! And ever since, I have always thought of that moment when I
should tell thee all. Now it is come. It is terrible. Oh ... Big
Sister!

"I have always thought, morning and evening, by night and by day, 'Some
time I must tell her that ...' I waited ... What agony! ... It is done.
Say nothing. Now I am afraid ... am afraid ... oh, I am afraid. If I am