As Stroeve toldme this he became as excited as when the incident occurred, and he took hold ofa dinner-knife on the table between us, and brandished it. He lifted his arm asthough to strike, and then, opening his hand, let it fall with a clatter to theground. He looked at me with a tremulous smile. He did not speak.

"Fireaway, " I said.

"I don'tknow what happened to me. I was just going to make a great hole in the picture,I had my arm all ready for the blow, when suddenly I seemed to see it. "

"Seewhat?"

"Thepicture. It was a work of art. I couldn't touch it. I was afraid. "

Stroeve wassilent again, and he stared at me with his mouth open and his round blue eyesstarting out of his head.

"It was agreat, a wonderful picture. I was seized with awe. I had nearly committed adreadful crime. I moved a little to see it better, and my foot knocked againstthe scraper. I shuddered. "

I really feltsomething of the emotion that had caught him. I was strangely impressed. It wasas though I were suddenly transported into a world in which the values werechanged. I stood by, at a loss, like a stranger in a land where the reactions ofman to familiar things are all different from those he has known. Stroeve triedto talk to me about the picture, but he was incoherent, and I had to guess atwhat he meant. Strickland had burst the bonds that hitherto had held him. Hehad found, not himself, as the phrase goes, but a new soul with unsuspectedpowers.

施特略夫给我讲这个故事的时候同事情发生的当时一样激动，他把放在我俩中间桌子上的一把餐刀拿起来，拼命挥舞着。他抬起一只胳臂，仿佛要扎下来的样子。接着，突然把手一松，刀子哐啷一声掉在地上。他望着我，声音颤抖地笑了笑，没有再说话。

“快说啊！”我催他道。

“我说不清楚自己是怎么回事，正当我要在画上戳个大洞的时候，当我已经抬起胳臂正准备往下扎的时候，突然间我好象看见它了。”

“看见什么了？”

“那幅画。一件珍贵的艺术品。我不能碰它。我害怕了。”

施特略夫又停顿下来，直勾勾地盯着我，张着嘴，一对又蓝又圆的眼珠似乎都要凸出来了。

“那真是一幅伟大的、奇妙的绘画。我一下子被它震骇住了。我几乎犯了一桩可怕的罪行。我移动了一下身体，想看得更清楚一些，我的脚踢在刮刀上。我打了个冷战。”

激动着施特略夫的那种感情我确实体会到了；他说的这些话奇怪地把我打动了。我好象突然被带进一个全部事物的价值都改变了的世界里。我茫然不知所措地站在一旁，好象一个到了异乡的陌生人，在那里，一个人对于他所熟悉的事物的各种反应都与过去的不同了。施特略夫尽量想把他见到的这幅画描述给我听，但是他说得前言不搭后语，许多意思都只能由我猜测。思特里克兰德已经把那一直束缚着的桎梏打碎了。他并没有象俗话所说的“寻找到自己”，而是寻找到一个新的灵魂，一个具有意料不到的巨大力量的灵魂。