"You aremy wife; you are dearer to me than anyone in the world. No one shall come herewithout your entire consent. "

She closedher eyes for a moment, and I thought she was going to faint. I was a littleimpatient with her; I had not suspected that she was so neurotic a woman. ThenI heard Stroeve's voice again. It seemed to break oddly on the silence.

"Haven'tyou been in bitter distress once when a helping hand was held out to you? Youknow how much it means. Couldn't you like to do someone a good turn when youhave the chance?"

The wordswere ordinary enough, and to my mind there was in them something so hortatorythat I almost smiled. I was astonished at the effect they had on BlancheStroeve. She started a little, and gave her husband a long look. His eyes werefixed on the ground. I did not know why he seemed embarrassed. A faint colourcame into her cheeks, and then her face became white -- more than white,ghastly; you felt that the blood had shrunk away from the whole surface of herbody; and even her hands were pale. A shiver passed through her. The silence ofthe studio seemed to gather body, so that it became an almost palpablepresence. I was bewildered.

"BringStrickland here, Dirk. I'll do my best for him. "

"Myprecious, " he smiled.

He wanted totake her in his arms, but she avoided him.

"Don'tbe affectionate before strangers, Dirk, " she said. "It makes me feelsuch a fool. "

Her mannerwas quite normal again, and no one could have told that so shortly before shehad been shaken by such a great emotion.

“你是我的妻子，对我说来，你比任何事物都宝贵。如果你没有完全同意谁也不会到咱们家来。”

她闭了一会儿眼睛，我以为她或许要晕过去了。我对她有些不耐烦。我没想到她是这样神经质的女人。接着我又听到施特略夫的话语声，沉寂似乎奇怪地被他的声音打破了。

“你自己是不是也一度陷于非常悲惨的境地，恰好有人把援助的手伸给你？你知道那对你是多么重要的事。如果遇到这种情况，你不愿意也帮别人一下儿吗？”

他这番话一点也不新鲜，我甚至觉得这里面还有一些教训的意味；我差点儿笑了出未。但是它对勃朗什·施特略夫的影响却叫我大吃一惊。她身体抖动了一下，好久好久凝视着她的丈夫。施特略夫紧紧盯住地面。我不懂为什么他的样子显得非常困窘。施特略夫太太的脸上泛上一层淡淡的红晕，接着又变白——变得惨白；你会觉得她身上的血液都从表面收缩回去，连两只手也一点血色没有了。她全身颤抖起来。画室寂静无声，好象那寂静已经变成了实体，只要伸出手就摸得到似的。我奇怪得不得了。

“把思特里克兰德带来吧，戴尔克。我会尽量照顾他。”

“我的亲爱的，”他笑了。

他想抱住她，但是她却避开了。

“当着生人的面别这么多情了，戴尔克，”她说，“叫人多下不来台啊。”

她的神情已经完全自然了；没有人敢说几分钟以前她还被一种强烈的感情激动着。