As for the negro--well, I can only say that it was solely due to the self-restraint which you impressed on me that I did not wipe him out as he stood--without warning, without fair play--without a single one of the graces of life and death.

Lilla was silent in the helpless concentration of deadly fear; Mimi was all resolve and self-forgetfulness, so intent on the soul-struggle in which she was engaged that there was no possibility of any other thought.

As for myself, the bonds of will which held me inactive seemed like bands of steel which numbed all my faculties, except sight and hearing.

We seemed fixed in an _impasse_.

Something must happen, though the power of guessing was inactive.