I was afraid to open my eyes wide, but looked out from under my eyeashes. The girl went on her knees, and bent over me. She looked very pleased with herself. She moved slowly, taking pleasure in her actions in a way which was both exciting and sickening. She bent her neck back and actually licked her lips like an animal. In the moonlight I could see the moisture shining on the scarlet lips and on the red tongue against the white sharp teeth. Lower and lower went her head. Her lips went below my mouth and chin and seemed to stick on my throat. Then she paused. I could feel her tongue as it licked her teeth and lips, and I could feel her hot breath on my neck. Then the skin of my throat began to shiver. I got the feeling one gets when the hand that is about to tickle you comes nearer and nearer. I could feel the soft, shivering touch of her lips on the sensitive skin of my throat, and the hard points of two sharp teeth, just touching and waiting there. I closed my eyes in slow, sleepy delight and waited, waited with a beating heart.

But at that instant, as quick as lightning, another feeling swept through me. The Count was there and it felt as if I was being washed in a the storm of his anger. As my eyes opened I saw his strong hand take the neck of the fair woman and with a giant's strength, he pulled her back. Her blue eyes were full of her anger, the white teeth biting on nothing in her rage, and the fair cheeks blazing red with anger. But the Count! Never did I imagine someone could be so furious, even a devil from hell. His eyes seemed to be burning. The red light in them was as bright as if the fires of hell burned behind them. His face was as pale as death, and the lines of it were as hard and deep as wires. The thick eyebrows that met over his nose now seemed like a bar of white-hot metal.