XXXII
... the Man got up from his chair and walked toward the door.
I saw that He walked with my walk. When He arose, I had felt in the muscles of my hips and back, a sudden stiffening as though I too were making an effort to rise from my chair. Each of his strides thereafter caused rapid contractions of the muscles in my thighs, in the calves of my legs, at my ankles.
He stopped at the door into the anteroom, and stood there with his hand on the latch.
And I heard the voice of the Marquis Gaspard speaking, a voice I could scarcely recognize, so faint, so broken, so husky had it become—a breathing rather than a voice.
It said:
“The papers!”
The towering figure of the Vicomte Antoine came between the Man and me. Nevertheless I could see, I know not how, that into the Man’s pocket the vicomte was slipping my purse and the letter from the colonel of artillery.
“He has them!” the vicomte said.
The Man opened the door and went away.
* * * * * * * * *
Now I say that when He was in the antechamber, separated from me by a thick partition, I could see Him still ... not exactly through the partition; nor could I, exactly, see Him with my own eyes ... but, as it were, with another pair of eyes which went along with Him, and did not leave Him any more than my eyes left me.... With these latter eyes I could see Him more clearly, more distinctly than with my own eyes.
And when He had left the antechamber, and was out there in the garden, under the trees of the thickly matted branches, I could see Him still. And when He had left the garden and was out there on the heath—there where the plants and trees grew sparse and stunted ... I could see Him still....
Once more, for one last time, the falsetto of the Marquis Gaspard grated on my ears; and I sensed that he was mustering all the fainting sonorousness of his throat and lungs for a last irrevocable declaration.
“Monsieur,” I heard him say, “Monsieur, that Man you saw, that Man who has just departed ... be my witness that I created Him ... as God created me. And having created Him I have the same right to destroy Him that God has to destroy me ... if He is able!”
The voice died out....