Madame de Fontenay stepped forward to restrain him, but Madeline stood her ground.
‘Do not think to frighten me,’ she said; ‘those days are past, Monsieur Belleisle; though you were fifty times my husband, you shall be punished for all that you have done to me.’
‘Madeline, my love, be reasonable,’ said Madame de Fontenay, ‘you are under some misapprehension—let me explain!’
‘Let you explain, Madame! you did that admirably to Monsieur Belleisle before I entered the room. I know that you are the cause of all this evil; I know it is through your wicked prompting that Monsieur Belleisle has been induced to make me what I am; I know that you have plotted together to bring about the ruin of a poor girl who never did you harm. With regard to you I am powerless, but upon that man, if there is any justice in the world, I will be revenged.’
By this time Belleisle had partly recovered his composure. He walked up to the angry girl, and asked quietly—
‘How will you be revenged? Tell me that!’
‘I will prosecute you for forgery; you wrote these letters to the Marquis de Vaux; you forged Mr. White’s writing, and sent a letter to me; he shall prosecute you too.’
Monsieur Belleisle turned whiter still.
‘It would be a new sensation in court,’ he said; ‘a young English girl prosecuting her French paramour. It would give you notoriety doubtless, Mademoiselle.’
‘What do you mean?——’