“I could not understand how Lerne could do such a thing—to leave me without warning at the mercy of a stranger.
“‘How do you like me?’ asked Klotz, pressing me against him.
“I have already told you, Nicolas, that he was big and strong. I felt his muscles tighten like a vise.
“‘Well, Emma,’ he went on, ‘you are going to love me to-day, for you will never see me again.’
“I am not a coward. Between you and me, I have been caressed by hands which had just committed murder. I have been made love to in ways that were like murder. My first lover would have stuck a knife into you as soon as look at you. But Klotz was too awful. I shall never forget how frightened I was.
“I woke up late in the morning. He was gone. I have never seen him again.
“Three weeks passed. Your uncle never wrote; he stayed away longer still.
“He came back without notice. I did not even see him come in. He told me that he had made straight for the laboratory as soon as he got back. I saw him come out about mid-day. I was quite sorry for him, he looked so pale. He was bent double as if he were worried to death. He was walking slowly, as if he were following a hearse.
“What had he been told! What had he done! What trouble was he in?
“I asked him gently. He still spoke with the accent of the country which he had just come from.