"This is very unfortunate. Calm yourself, Abbé. I will ever have a lively feeling of gratefulness for your devotion. Think of me on those terms."
"Ah, Madame, those were the only terms which might have been possible in former days; but they do not belong to the new régime. We are all equal now. Nothing will satisfy me short of possessing you entirely."
"Abbé, you are excited."
"No, citizeness, I have long been determined you shall be my mate." She shrank from the word and the uncanny passion of his gaze.
"When you will have reflected a few hours you will see that this is impossible."
"What! impossible? And why impossible? Ah, yes, I know, it is because of your pretty-faced lover Répentigny. I know all about that. I could have crushed him between my fingers; and I will crush him yet. What!—that man between myself and you! Why, then, did I bring you here? Was it to allow his interference with my object? After all I have done for you, am I to be met with answers of this sort?"
"I appreciate entirely your services, Abbé; they are too great to be underrated."
"They shall be more, citizeness. In these days it is my turn to dictate."
"Am I to understand that this has been your aim all along?"
He hesitated, but replied boldly, "It has, and were it not for that, I might long ago have pointed out both you and your doll-head lover to the Committee of Public Safety."