Page:The Woman in White.djvu/314

 "Paid down?"

"Paid down."

They were silent once more. As their voices ceased Madame Fosco's shadow darkened the blind again. Instead of passing this time, it remained, for a moment, quite still. I saw her fingers steal round the corner of the blind, and draw it on one side. The dim white outline of her face, looking out straight over me, appeared behind the window. I kept still, shrouded from head to foot in my black cloak. The rain, which was fast wetting me, dripped over the glass, blurred it, and prevented her from seeing anything. "More rain!" I heard her say to herself. She dropped the blind&mdash;and I breathed again freely.

The talk went on below me, the Count resuming it this time.

"Percival! do you care about your wife?"

"Fosco! that's rather a downright question."

"I am a downright man; and I repeat it."

"Why the devil do you look at me in that way?"

"You won't answer me? Well, then; let us say your wife dies before the summer is out&mdash;&mdash;"

"Drop it, Fosco!"

"Let us say your wife dies&mdash;&mdash;"

"Drop it, I tell you!"

"In that case, you would gain twenty thousand pounds; and you would lose&mdash;&mdash;"

"I should lose the chance of three thousand a year."

"The remote chance, Percival&mdash;the remote chance only. And you want money, at once.  In your position, the gain is certain&mdash;the loss doubtful."

"Speak for yourself as well as for me. Some of the money I want has been borrowed for you.  And if you come to gain, my wife's death would be ten thousand pounds in your wife's pocket.  Sharp as you are, you seem to have conveniently forgotten Madame Fosco's legacy.  Don't look at me in that way! I won't have it! What with your looks and your questions, upon my soul, you make my flesh creep!"

"Your flesh? Does flesh mean conscience in English? I speak of your wife's death, as I speak of a possibility. Why not? The respectable lawyers who scribble-scrabble your deeds and your wills, look the deaths of living people in the face.  Do lawyers make your flesh creep? Why should I? It is my business to-night, to clear up your position beyond the possibility of mistake&mdash;and I have now done it.  Here is your position. If your wife lives, you pay those bills