“Why are you here, then?”
“How did I know that the count had been sent by you?”
“That’s a poor reason, sir.”
“Besides, after what has occurred, after Favoral’s flight, I thought myself relieved of my engagement.”
“Indeed!”
“Well, if you insist upon it, I am wrong, I suppose.”
“Not only you are wrong,” uttered Marius still perfectly cool, “but you have committed a great imprudence. By failing to keep your engagements, you have relieved me of mine. The pact is broken. According to the agreement, I have the right, as I leave here, to go straight to the police.”
M. Costeclar’s dull eye was vacillating.
“I did not think I was doing wrong,” he muttered. “Favoral was my friend.”
“And that’s the reason why you were coming to propose to Mlle. Favoral to become your mistress? There she is, you thought, without resources, literally without bread, without relatives, without friends to protect her: this is the time to come forward. And thinking you could be cowardly, vile, and infamous with impunity, you came.”