Page:Keeping the Peace.pdf/228

 Here Edward sneezed again.

"I know exactly how innocent I was when you accused me of being your lover, and I know that Edward is just as innocent."

Edward's sneeze sounded like a blast of gratitude. Beaulieu went on:

"I've tried everything but one, in the hope of curing your temper. I've tried patience and generosity. That is no good with women. Our ancestors, the ancient Gauls and Romans, had a better way. Their slogan was kill or cure."

He stepped suddenly forward, and as Edward sneezed again and Madame Beaulieu turned her head to see what was going to happen, he hit her under the point of the chin with all his might and main. And for the next two hours Madame Beaulieu was like the dead in Ecclesiastes. She knew nothing.

Edward put on his slippers, stopped sneezing and helped carry Madame Beaulieu back to her bed. Her little face looked as sweet and gentle as a kitten's, and as innocent of wrongdoing.

Edward was for bathing her temples with cold water, but Beaulieu, who was still very angry, said: "Why revive her? She is better this way. She has what she deserves." And he added, "If I've killed her this is of course the end, but if I haven't, then it is perhaps a—beginning." His face soft-