With docility he answered:
"Yes, yes."
But she, lost in reflection, weighed every detail; and little by little, as the plan developed in her head, she discussed and improved it.
"Only, my darling," she went on, "it would be foolish not to take our precautions. If we are to be arrested on the morrow, I prefer to remain as we are. Look here, I have read this somewhere, I have forgotten where, in a novel for sure: the best thing would be to make believe that he committed suicide. For some time back he has been very peculiar, not quite right in his head, and so gloomy that no one would be surprised to suddenly learn that he came here and killed himself. But then, we must arrange matters in such a way that the idea of suicide will seem probable. Is it not so?"
"Without a doubt," he replied.
After a pause, Séverine, who had been thinking, resumed:
"Eh! Something to hide the trace. I say, here is an idea that has just struck me! Supposing he got that knife in his throat, we should only have to carry him together over there and lay him across the line. Do you understand? We could place him with his neck on a rail, so that he would be decapitated by the first train that passed. After that they could make their investigations. With his head and neck crushed, there would no longer be a hole, nothing! Do you agree? Answer!"
"Yes, I agree," said he; "it is capital."
Both became animated. She was almost gay, and quite proud of her faculty of imagination.