"I ask it of you." Eugénie kept her eyes steadily fixed on his face, feeling that so her power over him would be greater. It seemed now, however, to have reached its limits. He burst out like a madman.
"Never, never! I would rather see the house stormed, see it pulled to the ground, than take you there again. What? he up yonder is to have you at his side again, so that he shall take courage and resist to the last? He is to have the triumph of knowing that you have come away from the city by yourself and made your way through the whole place in revolt, just that he should not be left alone? But you may look for another guide for that, and if you find one"--with a threatening look at his father--"he shall not go far with you, I'll take care of that."
"Ulric, control yourself, you are speaking to a lady!" cried the Manager, stepping between them in mortal fear. He naturally saw nothing in this scene but an outbreak of that unrestrained enmity which his son had long cherished towards the whole Berkow family, and he took up a position before his master's wife, determined, come what might, to protect and shield her. She pressed by him, however, gently but resolutely.
"So you will not go with me, Hartmann?"
"No, a hundred times, no."
"Well then, I shall go alone."
She turned away in the direction of the park, but with two strides Ulric reached her and placed himself before her, barring the road.
"Back, my lady, you can't get through, I tell you, least of all, this way where my men are. Lady or not, it is all the same to them now. Your name is Berkow, and that is enough. As soon as they find out who you are, you will have them all upon you. You cannot and shall not go over there now. Stay here where you are."
These last words were spoken imperatively and in a tone of menace, but Eugénie was not accustomed to submit to orders, and the almost delirious violence with which he was striving to keep her from Arthur called up in her a vague anxiety and dread lest things should be worse with him than she had been led to believe.
"I shall go to my husband," she repeated very resolutely, "and I shall see whether on my way to him any one dares stop me by force. Let your friends assault a woman, give the signal for it yourself, if you care to take the credit of the heroic deed. I shall go."