Samson And Delilah

Samson And Delilah
seated nude
Spring Breeze
Sweet Nothings The household went to bed, and, distressed beyond measure, Tess retired also. She was continually waking as she lay, and in the middle of the night found that the baby was still worse. It was obviously dying - quietly and painlessly, but none the less surely. ¡¡¡¡In her misery she rocked herself upon the bed. The clock struck the solemn hour of one, that hour when fancy stalks outside reason, and malignant possibilities stand rock-firm as facts. She thought of the child consigned to the nethermost corner of hell, as its double doom for lack of baptism and lack of legitimacy; saw the arch-fiend tossing it with his three-pronged fork, like the one they used for heating the oven on baking days; to which picture she added many other quaint and curious details of torment sometimes taught the young in this Christian country. The lurid presentment so powerfully affected her imagination in the silence of the sleeping house that her nightgown became damp with perspiration, and the bedstead shook with each throb of her heart. ¡¡¡¡The infant's breathing grew more difficult, and the mother's mental tension increased. It was useless to devour the little thing with kisses; she could stay in bed no longer, and walked feverishly about the room. ¡¡¡¡`O merciful God, have pity; have pity upon my poor baby!' she cried. `Heap as much anger as you want to upon me, and welcome; but pity the child!' ¡¡¡¡She leant against the chest of drawers, and murmured incoherent supplications for a long while, till she suddenly started up. ¡¡¡¡`Ah! perhaps baby can be saved! Perhaps it will be just the same!' ¡¡¡¡She spoke so brightly that it seemed as though her face might have shone in the gloom surrounding her.