Page:Georges Eekhoud - Escal Vigor, a novel.djvu/217

Rh and contempt. She exercised her wits, he imagined, to confound and overwhelm him by her self-abnegation. This angel was to him but a skilful torturer.

And, on the first occasion, the unhappy man broke out into invectives against her, of an increasingly atrocious character.

At this period, Blandine's beauty reflected the superhuman exaltation of her sentiments; her beauty had something in it even of the majesty of death. But a repose and peace even more absolute than that of the tomb was about to reign in her heart.

Harassed by Landrillon, she had ended by giving herself up to him. She had offered her poor body as a holocaust to save the soul of him whom she regarded as sacreligious and criminal. As a Christian woman she doubtless prayed for him to snatch his soul from perdition, and all her heart rose towards the ungrateful man at the very moment when she immolated herself in the arms of the odious blackmailer.

The sacrifice was renewed at each fresh exigency of the rascal. Blandine breathed again. Landrillon would not attempt anything against the Count's reputation. She hoped also for a miracle. Kehlmark would 13