He turned to a wash-hand-stand, took a towel, dipped it in the basin and soaped it and, in the twinkling of an eye, wiped the make-up from his face and altered the set of his hair:
"That's it," he said, showing himself to Angélique under the aspect in which she had seen him on the night of the burglary in Paris. "I feel more comfortable like this for a discussion with my father-in-law."
"Where are you going?" she cried, flinging herself in front of the door.
"Why, to join the gentlemen."
"You shall not pass!"
"Why not?"
"Suppose they kill you?"
"Kill me?"
"That's what they mean to do, to kill you ... to hide your body somewhere.... Who would know of it?"
"Very well," he said, "from their point of view, they are quite right. But, if I don't go to them, they will come here. That door won't stop them.... Nor you, I'm thinking. Therefore, it's better to have done with it."