In the Days of the Comet Read online

Page 14


  Section 1

  "THAT comet is going to hit the earth!"

  So said one of the two men who got into the train and settled down.

  "Ah!" said the other man.

  "They do say that it is made of gas, that comet. We sha'n'tblow up, shall us?". . .

  What did it matter to me?

  I was thinking of revenge--revenge against the primary conditionsof my being. I was thinking of Nettie and her lover. I was firmlyresolved he should not have her--though I had to kill them both toprevent it. I did not care what else might happen, if only that endwas ensured. All my thwarted passions had turned to rage. I wouldhave accepted eternal torment that night without a second thought,to be certain of revenge. A hundred possibilities of action, ahundred stormy situations, a whirl of violent schemes, chased oneanother through my shamed, exasperated mind. The sole prospect Icould endure was of some gigantic, inexorably cruel vindication ofmy humiliated self.

  And Nettie? I loved Nettie still, but now with the intensestjealousy, with the keen, unmeasuring hatred of wounded pride, andbaffled, passionate desire.