“and she had succeeded, on the second try, in hurling herself out of the world.”

“She was afraid, but she couldn't just sit around waiting for someone to save her. She had to try to save herself, try to figure it out.”

“Anna had been preparing herself for this meeting, had thought what she would say to him, but she did not succeed in saying anything of it; his passion mastered her. She tried to calm him, to calm herself, but it was too late. His feeling infected her. Her lips trembled so that for a long while she could say nothing.”

“That was it. That was really it. She knew that she had told herself that that was it only seconds earlier, but this was now the final real ulimate it.”

“By morning she was dead. She had not died of starvation or committed suicide by any conventional means. She had simply willed herself to die, and being a strong-willed woman, she had succeeded. She had missed dying on her birthday by two days.”

“When asked why she had tried to kill herself, she said only, "It was a mistake.”