“‘Emma,’ said he, ‘I think that you love me?’
“‘You know very well that I do, my dear benefactor. I am devoted to you, body and soul.’
“‘Do you think that you can love me with real love? Oh,’ said he, with a snigger, ‘I am no longer a young man, but....’
“What was I to say? I did not know. Lerne knitted his brows.
“He seized my two hands. His eyes were terrible.
“‘Now,’ cried he, ‘no more joking; no more little games, you are mine exclusively. I quite understood what was going on here, and that there were admirers hovering round you. I have got rid of Klotz, and as for Donovan Macbeth, be on your guard. If he does not stop, it is all up with him. Look out!’
“Then, Lerne, having got rid of the servants, took on this poor Barbe as his only domestic, and then he arranged the labyrinth and its roads.
“On the day arranged, Macbeth, in his turn, came back to the château, followed by his dog. He was surprised to see the forest all upside down.
“Lerne went up to him while he was still holding his luggage in his hand, and he quite dumbfounded him by such a violent lecture, and so evil a countenance, that Nell bristled up, put out her claws and began to growl.
“What was bound to happen, happened. Considering the age and position of our host, Macbeth and I should probably have ‘respected his roof,’ as they say, but it was only a question, now, of deceiving an angry tyrant. And we did.