From that moment till Falk went out of the cabin the girl, with her hands folded on the work lying in her lap, never took her eyes off him.  His own, in the blindness of his heart, darted all over the cabin, only seeking to avoid the sight of Hermann’s raving.  It was ridiculous, and was made almost terrible by the stillness of every other person present.  It was contemptible, and was made appalling by the man’s over-mastering horror of this awful sincerity, coming to him suddenly, with the confession of such a fact.  He walked with great strides; he gasped.  He wanted to know from Falk how dared he to come and tell him this?  Did he think himself a proper person to be sitting in this cabin where his wife and children lived?  Tell his niece!  Expected him to tell his niece!  His own brother’s daughter!  Shameless!  Did I ever hear tell of such impudence?—­he appealed to me.  “This man here ought to have gone and hidden himself out of sight instead of . . .”

“But it’s a great misfortune for me.  But it’s a great misfortune for me,” Falk would ejaculate from time to time.

However, Hermann kept on running frequently against the corners of the table.  At last he lost a slipper, and crossing his arms on his breast, walked up with one stocking foot very close to Falk, in order to ask him whether he did think there was anywhere on earth a woman abandoned enough to mate with such a monster.  “Did he?  Did he?  Did he?” I tried to restrain him.  He tore himself out of my hands; he found his slipper, and, endeavouring to put it on, stormed standing on one leg—­and Falk, with a face unmoved and averted eyes, grasped all his mighty beard in one vast palm.

“Was it right then for me to die myself?” he asked thoughtfully.  I laid my hand on his shoulder.

“Go away,” I whispered imperiously, without any clear reason for this advice, except that I wished to put an end to Hermann’s odious noise.  “Go away.”

He looked searchingly for a moment at Hermann before he made a move.  I left the cabin too to see him out of the ship.  But he hung about the quarter-deck.

“It is my misfortune,” he said in a steady voice.

“You were stupid to blurt it out in such a manner.  After all, we don’t hear such confidences every day.”

“What does the man mean?” he mused in deep undertones.  “Somebody had to die—­but why me?”

He remained still for a time in the dark—­silent; almost invisible.  All at once he pinned my elbows to my sides.  I felt utterly powerless in his grip, and his voice, whispering in my ear, vibrated.

“It’s worse than hunger.  Captain, do you know what that means?  And I could kill then—­or be killed.  I wish the crowbar had smashed my skull ten years ago.  And I’ve got to live now.  Without her.  Do you understand?  Perhaps many years.  But how?  What can be done?  If I had allowed myself to look at her once I would have carried her off before that man in my hands—­like this.”