She kept silent stubbornly.
The anger of her enemy was inflamed by this terrified silence. And he went on, dwelling on each word: “We have no time for trifles, have we Aurelie, or to touch on one subject after another? It is necessary to speak clearly without mincing matters, in order that there may be no misunderstanding. To come straight to the point then—silence about the past and the humiliations I have suffered. Those no longer count. What does count is the present—the present is all important. Now, the present is the murder on the express, your flight through the woods, your capture [[146]]by the police; twenty proofs, every one of which is fatal to you. And the present is to-day, when I hold you in my grip and all I have to do is to take you and conduct you to your step-father and shout in his face, before witnesses: ‘The murderess, whom they are seeking everywhere, is here! The warrant for her arrest is in my pocket. Send for the police!’ ”
He stretched out his arm, ready, as he had said, to grasp the criminal, and with this threat hanging over her, he ended in yet harsher accents: “On the one hand, then, this: a public denunciation, the court, and a terrible punishment; on the other hand the alternative I offer to your choice: an alliance, an immediate alliance, on conditions I lay down. It is more than a promise I demand; it is an oath, taken on your knees. The oath that, once you have returned to Paris, you will come to see me, alone, at my flat. And more than that an immediate proof that the alliance is honest, signed by your lips on mine—and not with kiss of disgust and hatred, but with a voluntary kiss, like the kisses other women, as prettier and more difficult to win than you, Aurelie, have given me—a lover’s kiss. Answer, curse you!” he shouted in a sudden outburst of fury. “Answer that you accept! I’ve had enough of your airs of a lost soul! Answer, or I’ll jolly well arrest you and it will not only be the kiss but prison as well!”
His left hand fell heavily on her shoulder, while with his right, seizing her by the throat, he pressed back [[147]]her head against the lattice-work and bent down. But his head stopped short, midway to her lips. He felt her collapse; she had fainted.
This unexpected swoon took him aback. He had come without any very definite plan beyond that of speaking to her, and during the hour before the coming of Bregeac, of obtaining from her a solemn promise and the recognition of the fact that she was in his power. Now chance offered him an inert and helpless victim.
He remained some moments bending over her, gazing at her with greedy eyes. He looked round this sylvan retreat, enclosed and discreet. No witness; no interference possible.
But another idea brought him to the wall, and from among the trees he looked down on the deserted valley, the forest with its dark trees, black and mysterious, in which he had noticed as he paused the mouths of the grottos. Aurelie thrown into one of them, a prisoner, and held under the terrible threat of the police, Aurelie a prisoner for two days, three days, a week if necessary, was not that an unexpected, triumphant dénouement, the beginning and the end of the adventure?
He whistled sharply. Opposite him on the further bank of the pool two arms were waved above two bushes on the edge of the forest. The signal agreed on: two men were there, posted by him to help him [[148]]carry out his plans. On this side of the pool, a boat was rocking.
He hesitated no longer. He knew that opportunity is fleeting and that, if one does not seize it in its passing, it vanishes like a shadow. He crossed the terrace again and perceived that the girl seemed ready to come to.
“Let us act,” he said, “if not——”