Therese and Laurent recognised the cold, damp smell
of the drowned man in the warm air they were breathing. They said to
themselves that a corpse was there, close to them, and they examined
one another without daring to move. Then all the terrible story of their
crime was unfolded in their memory. The name of their victim sufficed
to fill them with thoughts of the past, to compel them to go through all
the anguish of the murder over again. They did not open their lips, but
looked at one another, and both at the same time were troubled with the
same nightmare, both with their eyes broached the same cruel tale.
This exchange of terrified looks, this mute narration they were about
to make to themselves of the murder, caused them keen and intolerable
apprehension. The strain on their nerves threatened an attack, they
might cry out, perhaps fight. Laurent, to drive away his recollections,
violently tore himself from the ecstasy of horror that enthralled him in
the gaze of Therese. He took a few strides in the room; he removed his
boots and put on slippers; then, returning to his former place, he
sat down at the chimney corner, and tried to talk on matters of
indifference.
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