MS-HRC-SB-4-3

[2147] until such time as she had the strength to go and fetch what was
needed to clean up the mess. [2148] Half a century younger she might have
been taken for pregnant. [2149] At the same time her hair began to fall
out in abundance and she confessed to Macmann that she was afraid
to ^{did not dare} comb it any more, for fear of mal^king it fall out even faster.
[2150] He said to himself with satisfaction, She tells me everything.

[2151] But these were small things compared to the change in her complex-
ion, now rapidly turning from yellow to saffron. [2152] The sight of her
so doⁱminished did not damp Macmann's desire to take ^her, all stinking,
yellow, bald and vomiting, in his arms. [2153] And he would certainly have
done so had she not been opposed to it. [2154] One can understand him (her
too).

[2155] For when one has within reach the one and only love requited
of a life so monstrously prolonged, it is natural one should wish to
to profit by it, before it is too late, and refuse to be deterred
by feelings of squeamishness excusable in the faint-hearted, but
which true love disdains. [2156] And though all pointed to Moll's being
out of sorts, Macmann could not help interpreting her attitude as
a falling off of her affection for him. [2157] And perhaps indeed there
was something of that too.

[2158] At all events the more she declined the
more Macmann longed to crush her to his breast, which is at least
sufficiently curious and unusual to deserve of mention. [2159] And when
she turned and looked at him (and from time to time she did so
still), with eyes in which he fancied he could read boundless
regret and love, then a kind of frenzy seized upon him and he
began to belabour with his fists his chest, his head and even the