No, I know I shall die. Oh, dear girl, something not good is happening
with me, something strange. It has never been like this with me before.
There is something in me so incomprehensible. As though I were beginning
to live again, or ... I don't know what.

VARVARA.
What is the matter with you?

KATERINA (_taking her hand_).
I'll tell you, Varia; some dreadful sin is coming upon me! I have such a
terror in my heart, such terror! As though I am standing on the edge of a
precipice and someone is pushing me in, and I have nothing to cling to.

[_Clutches her head in her hand._]

VARVARA.
What's wrong with you? You can't be well.

KATERINA.
Yes, I am well.... It would be better if I were ill, it's worse as it is.
A dream keeps creeping into my mind, and I cannot get away from it. I try
to think--I can't collect my thoughts, I try to pray--but I can't get free
by prayer. My lips murmur the words but my heart is far away; as though
the evil one were whispering in my ear, and always of such wicked things.
And such thoughts rise up within me, that I'm ashamed of myself. What is
wrong with me? There's some trouble, something before me! At night I do
not sleep, Varia, a sort of murmur haunts me; someone seems speaking so
tenderly to me, as it were cooing to me like a dove. And now I never
dream, Varia, those old dreams, of trees and mountains in Paradise; but
it's as though someone were clasping me passionately--so passionately and