“Ah, you want to break with me,” she exclaimed, mockingly.
“Didn’t you tell me yesterday that I wasn’t the man for you?”
_“I repeat it now!”_
“Very well, then.” My whole body was trembling, my voice failed me, and
I handed her the letter.
“Keep it,” she said, measuring me coldly. “You forget that is no longer
a question as to whether you satisfy me as a man; as a _slave_ you will
doubtless do well enough.”
“Madame!” I exclaimed, aghast.
“That is what you will call me in the future,” replied Wanda, throwing
back her head with a movement of unutterable contempt. “Put your
affairs in order within the next twenty-four hours. The day after
to-morrow I shall start for Italy, and you will accompany me as my
servant.”
“Wanda—”
“I forbid any sort of familiarity,” she said, cutting my words short,
“likewise you are not to come in unless I call or ring for you, and you
are not to speak to me until you are spoken to. From now on your name
is no longer Severin, but _Gregor_.”
I trembled with rage, and yet, unfortunately, I cannot deny it, I also
felt a strange pleasure and stimulation.
“But, madame, you know my circumstances,” I began in my confusion. “I
am dependent on my father, and I doubt whether he will give me the
large sum of money needed for this journey—”
“That means you have no money, Gregor,” said Wanda, delightedly, “so
much the better, you are then entirely dependent on me, and in fact my
slave.”
“You don’t consider,” I tried to object, “that as man of honor it is
impossible for me—”
“I have indeed considered it,” she replied almost with a tone of
command. “As a man of honor you must keep your oath and redeem your
promise to follow me as slave whithersoever I demand and to obey
whatever I command. Now leave me, Gregor!”