“It is a risky game.”
“No; I owed that poor Theodore his life, and he is reprieved.”
“And you?”
“I—I shall be what I ought to be. I shall always make our set shake in their shoes.—But we must get to work. Go and tell Paccard to be off as fast as he can go, and see that Europe does as I told her.”
“That is a trifle; I know how to deal with la Gonore,” said the terrible Jacqueline. “I have not been wasting my time here among the gilliflowers.”
“Let Ginetta, the Corsican girl, be found by to-morrow,” Jacques Collin went on, smiling at his aunt.
“I shall want some clue.”
“You can get it through Manon la Blonde,” said Jacques.
“Then we meet this evening,” replied the aunt, “you are in such a deuce of a hurry. Is there a fat job on?”
“I want to begin with a stroke that will beat everything that Bibi-Lupin has ever done. I have spoken a few words to the brute who killed Lucien, and I live only for revenge! Thanks to our positions, he and I shall be equally strong, equally protected. It will take years to strike the blow, but the wretch shall have it straight in the heart.”