Page:Georges Eekhoud - Escal Vigor, a novel.djvu/219

Rh fixed stare, far away from her interlocutor.

"Why, what's the matter with'ee? And our agreement, what dost with that? I want thee for my lawful splice. Thou hast some ha'pence. I must have'em. Or dost thou prefer that I reveal the chaste mysteries of Escal-Vigor to Balthus Bomberg and Claudie Govaertz?"

"Thou'lt not do that, Landrillon!"

"Ah, we'll see if I won't!"

"I make a proposal," she said. "I'll give thee the money; I will give thee all I have; but let me live here, and you look for another wife."

"Can it be that thou lov'st him still, then, thy buggaboo?" exclaimed the rascal. "So much the worse. Thou'st got to make up thy mind to leave him and become Madame Landrillon. No nonsense! Thou hast two months to think it over, and then chuck it all!"

Abandon Escal-Vigor! Never see Kehlmark again!

As fate willed it, at the height of her anguish, the unhappy woman encountered Henry de Kehlmark, who, provoked by her scared, dolorous look, took her again to task.

"That's a face like a funeral once more!