The blows fell rapidly and powerfully on my back and arms. Each one cut
into my flesh and burned there, but the pains enraptured me. They came
from her whom I adored, and for whom I was ready at any hour to lay
down my life.
She stopped. “I am beginning to enjoy it,” she said, “but enough for
to-day. I am beginning to feel a demonic curiosity to see how far your
strength goes. I take a cruel joy in seeing you tremble and writhe
beneath my whip, and in hearing your groans and wails; I want to go on
whipping without pity until you beg for mercy, until you lose your
senses. You have awakened dangerous elements in my being. But now get
up.”