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!"

"You?" said Madame Desvarennes, going nearer to Cayrol.

"Yes, I!" answered the banker, with energy.