'Laugh! laugh! You dared to make sport of a
man's passion--you?'
"'Oh, mercy!' cried Zambinella.
"'I ought to kill you!' shouted Sarrasine, drawing his sword in an
outburst of rage. 'But,' he continued, with cold disdain, 'if I
searched your whole being with this blade, should I find there any
sentiment to blot out, anything with which to satisfy my thirst for
vengeance? You are nothing! If you were a man or a woman, I would kill
you, but--'
"Sarrasine made a gesture of disgust, and turned his face away;
thereupon he noticed the statue.
"'And that is a delusion!' he cried.
"Then, turning to Zambinella once more, he continued:
"'A woman's heart was to me a place of refuge, a fatherland. Have you
sisters who resemble you? No. Then die! But no, you shall live. To
leave you your life is to doom you to a fate worse than death. I
regret neither my blood nor my life, but my future and the fortune of
my heart. Your weak hand has overturned my happiness. What hope can I
extort from you in place of all those you have destroyed? You have
brought me down to your level. _To love, to be loved!_ are henceforth
meaningless words to me, as to you.
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