"Ah, when the senses are roused they are changed beings," Artois said. "They hate and resent governance from outside, but their blood governs them."
"Our blood governs us when the time comes—do you remember?"
Hermione had said the words before she remembered the circumstances in which they had been spoken and of whom they were said. Directly she had uttered them she remembered.
"What was that?" Maurice asked, before Artois could reply.
He had seen a suddenly conscious look in Hermione's face, and instantly he was aware of a feeling of jealousy within him.
"What was that?" he repeated, looking quickly from one to the other.
"Something I remember saying to your wife," Artois answered. "We were talking about human nature—a small subject, monsieur, isn't it?—and I think I expressed the view of a fatalist. At any rate, I did say that—that our blood governs us when the time comes."
"The time?" Maurice asked.
His feeling of jealousy died away, and was replaced by a keen personal interest unmingled with suspicions of another.
"Well, I confess it sometimes seems to me as if, when a certain hour strikes, a certain deed must be committed by a certain man or woman. It is perhaps their hour of madness. They may repent it to the day of their death. But can they in that hour avoid that deed? Sometimes, when I witness the tragic scenes that occur abruptly, unexpectedly, in the comedy of life, I am moved to wonder."