“You pretend it still exists?” he sneered.
I gave him a look, which, had looks that power, would have scorched and shrivelled him where he stood. But instead of shrinking he came very close to me and stared into my eyes, a fiendish grin upon his lips.
“Really, Citizen Tavernay,” he said at last, “it would appear from your countenance that this surprising thing is true; and yet I can scarcely believe it. Have you taken a vow? Are you—but no matter. I thank you, my friend, for your forbearance. I applaud your virtue, which is really unique even in this age of virtue. Nevertheless you must agree with me that your death is more than ever necessary. Indeed I find you already one too many!” and he glanced toward the cot with a meaning unmistakable.
“What a brute!” I murmured, contempt mastering every other emotion. “What a brute! This is your whole life, then! You think of nothing but vileness. I might have guessed as much by looking at you! But one victim has already escaped you——”
“Yes,” he broke in, his face suddenly contorted with rage; “and the wretch who fired that shot is burning in hell for it!”
“She died in her husband’s arms,” I continued, seeing how the words stung him, “happy, his lips on hers. Of you she had never so much as heard the name. During her whole life not once did she so much as think of you. For her you have never existed—never will exist! She has escaped you!”
“Go on!” he said hoarsely, licking his lips with a purple tongue. “Body of God! Go on!”
His face was convulsed with anguish, great drops of sweat stood out across his forehead; he was quivering under the blows I dealt him, and yet he seemed to get a kind of fearful pleasure from them. And in that instant I saw how he had been consumed by a hopeless passion; how he had beaten himself against a lofty wall which he could never hope to scale; how he was at this moment eating his heart out—and I might have found it in my soul to pity him, if I had not so loathed and hated him for the evil it was still in his power to do.
“Go on!” he repeated savagely. “What more?”
“Nothing more,” I answered, “except that your second victim will escape you even as the other. God protects His angels!”