"You!" exclaimed the iron-merchant in astonishment.
"It is true," said Rougemont.
"I would have saved her if it had been possible!" cried Auriol. "I warned her that to love me would be fatal to her. I told her I was linked to an inexorable destiny, which would involve her in its meshes—but in vain."
"Oh!" ejaculated Thorneycroft.
"You see you ought to blame him, not me," said Rougemont, with a derisive laugh.
"I would have given my life, my soul, to preserve her, had it been possible!" cried Auriol.
"Horrors crowd so thick upon me that my brain reels," cried Thorneycroft. "Merciless wretch!" he added, to Rougemont, "fiend—whatever you are, complete your work of ruin by my destruction. I have nothing left to tie me to life."
"I would have the miserable live," said Rougemont, with a diabolical laugh. "It is only the happy I seek to destroy. But you have to thank your own obstinacy for your present distress. Bid a lasting farewell to Auriol. You will see him no more."
"Hold!" exclaimed Auriol. "A word before we part."
"Ay, hold!" echoed a loud and imperious voice from the depths of the passage.