“I have said openly, before numerous witnesses, that I would never set foot in a house that had been given you by Chanlouineau.”
“Jean! you, my brother! said that?”
“I said it. It must be supposed that there is a deadly feud between us. This must be, in order that neither you nor Maurice d’Escorval can be accused of complicity in any deed of mine.”
Marie-Anne stood as if petrified.
“He is mad!” she murmured.
“Do I really have that appearance?”
She shook off the stupor that paralyzed her, and seizing her brother’s hands:
“What do you intend to do?” she exclaimed. “What do you intend to do? Tell me; I will know.”
“Nothing! let me alone.”
“Jean!”