"Leave, leave, I tell you, or I sha'n't have the patience to wait
for a servant!"

He must have joined action to word, and have seized Van Klopen by
the collar to thrust him into the hall, for Pascal heard a sound
of scuffling, a series of oaths worthy of a coal-heaver, two or
three frightened cries from the baroness, and several guttural
exclamations in German. Then a door closed with such violence
that the whole house shook, and a magnificent clock, fixed to the
wall of the smoking-room, fell on to the floor.

If Pascal had not heard this scene, he would have deemed it
incredible. How could one suppose that a creditor would leave
this princely mansion with his bill unpaid? But more and more
clearly he understood that there must be some greater cause of
difference between husband and wife than this bill of twenty-eight
thousand francs. For what was this amount to a confirmed gambler
who, without as much as a frown, gained or lost a fortune every
evening of his life. Evidently there was some skeleton in this
household--one of those terrible secrets which make a man and his
wife enemies, and all the more bitter enemies as they are bound
together by a chain which it is impossible to break. And
undoubtedly, a good many of the insults which the baron had heaped
upon Van Klopen must have been intended for the baroness. These
thoughts darted through Pascal's mind with the rapidity of
lightning, and showed him the horrible position in which he was
placed. The baron, who had been so favorably disposed toward him,
and from whom he was expecting a great service, would undoubtedly
hate him, undoubtedly become his enemy, when he learned that he
had been a listener, although an involuntary one, to this