And it was the first time that night I was able to believe that I had triumphed. Anna got meeker, as if changing her mind. And then her company no longer displeased me. She could stay. And I fell asleep admiring her, beautiful and kind, persuaded. I soon fell asleep.

An awful dream. I found myself in a complicated structure, but which I understood right away as if I had been part of it. A huge, primitive cave, without those decorations nature has fun creating in caves, and thus certainly the work of man; I was sitting in the dark on a three-legged wooden stool next to a glass chest feebly lit by a light I took to be one of its qualities, the only light in the vast space, and which lit me, a wall made of large uncut stones, and, beneath it, a cement wall. How expressive dream structures are! You might say they are so the person who designed them can understand them easily, and that would be correct. But the surprising thing is that the architect doesn’t know he has built them, and he doesn’t remember it even when he is awake, and thinking about the world it emerged from and where structures pop up with such ease he might be surprised to find that everything there is understood with no need for a single word.

I knew right away that that cave had been built by men who were using it for a cure they had come up with, a cure that would be lethal for one of those put away there (a lot of them must have been down there in the shadows), but beneficial to all of the others. Exactly! A kind of religion, which needed a sacrifice, and by that I was naturally not surprised.

It was quite a bit easier to guess that, since I had been placed so close to the glass chest in which the victim was supposed to be asphyxiated, I had been chosen to die, to everyone else’s advantage. And I was already anticipating the pains of the horrible death that was awaiting me. I was having trouble breathing, and my head was hurting and feeling heavy, as a result of which I held it in my hands, my elbows propped on my knees.

All at once everything that I already knew was spoken by a lot of people concealed in the darkness. My wife spoke first: ‘Hurry up, the doctor said you’re the one who has to go into that chest.’ It seemed distressing to me, but very logical. So I didn’t protest, but I pretended not to hear. And I thought: ‘My wife’s love has always struck me as stupid.’ A lot of other voices were shouting imperiously: ‘Have you decided to obey?’ Among them I made out, very clearly, Dr Paoli’s. I couldn’t protest, but thought: ‘He is doing it to be paid.’

I lifted my gaze for another look at the glass chest that was awaiting me. I then saw, sitting on the lid, the bride. There, too, she maintained her constant air of easy assurance. Frankly, I despised that silly woman, but I was immediately informed that she was very important for me. I would have found this out in real life too, seeing her seated on that device that was supposed to kill me. And so, eagerly, I looked at her. I felt like one of those tiny little dogs that win favour by wagging their tails. What degradation!