"It is quite true that it isn't the weapon I am in the habit of using, and by the way I am inclined to think it would be wise to conceal or destroy this one."
"That would be the height of folly, my friend! You must keep it; your servants and friends know that you always carry such a weapon; if you should dispose of it, that would be an indication of guilt."
"True, but yours?"
"Mine is innocent of his blood; my first blows missed, and after that yours left me no room."
"Ah! heaven! that is true too. You tried to murder him, and fatality compelled me to do with my own hands the deed of which I had such a horror."
"It pleases you to say that, my dear fellow; however, you went very willingly to the rendezvous."
"I had an instinctive foreboding that my evil genius would force me to do it. After all, it was my destiny and his. We are rid of him at last! But why in the devil did you empty his pockets?"
"Precaution and presence of mind on my part. When they find him stripped of his money and his wallet, they will look for the assassin among the lowest classes, and will never suspect people in fashionable society. It will be considered an act of brigandage and not a matter of private revenge. Don't betray yourself by absurd emotion when you hear the affair mentioned to-morrow, and we have nothing to fear. Just reach me the candle so that I can burn these papers; as for honest coin, that never betrayed anybody."
"Stop!" said Leoni, seizing a letter which the marquis was about to burn with the rest. "I saw Juliette's family name."
"It is a letter to Madame Ruyter," said the marquis. "Let us see:"