that she had been so easily understood by him whom she had armed on her
behalf.

"The opportunity was a rare one, though," continued Cayrol, getting
excited. "Fancy; I found them together under my own roof. The law
allowed me, if not the actual right to kill them, at least an excuse if
I did so. Well, at the decisive moment, when I ought to have struck the
blow, my heart failed me. He lives, and Jeanne loves him."

There was a pause.

"What are you going to do?"

"Get rid of him in another way," answered Cayrol. "I had only two ways
of killing him. One was to catch him in my own house, the other to call
him out. My will failed me in the one case; my want of skill would fail
me in the other. I will not fight Serge. Not because I fear death, for
my life is blighted, and I don't value it; but if I were dead, Jeanne
would belong to him, and I could not bear the thought of that even in
death. I must separate them forever."

"And how?"

"By forcing him to disappear."

"And if he refuse?"

Cayrol shook his head menacingly, and exclaimed:

"I defy him! If he resist, I will bring him before the assizes!"