I think it was Uncle Peter who gave me voice, who put the right words in my brain, who made me laugh--yes, laugh, and almost caress him with my hands.

The change in me amazed him, stunned him, and he freed me--while I told him that in these first few hours of wifehood I wanted to be alone, and that he should come to me that evening, and that I would be waiting for him.

And I smiled at him as I said these things, smiled while I wanted to kill him, and he went, a great, gloating, triumphant beast, believing that the obedience of wifehood was about to give him what he had expected to find through dishonor--and I was left alone.
"I thought of only one thing then--escape.

I saw the truth.

It swept over me, inundated me, roared in my ears.