"Oh, well," said he, "that's a good sign, my dear; very good, very good.I've always thought and said that you were a good girl - in fact, too good; you needed correcting."She did, indeed, have a good heart; for instead of taking Hector's bank-notes and turning him out of doors, she tried to comfort and console him.Since he had confessed,to her that he was penniless, she ceased to hate him, and even commenced to love him.Hector, homeless, was no longer the dreaded man who paid to be master, the millionnaire who, by a caprice, had raised her from the gutter.He was no longer the execrated tyrant.Ruined, he descended from his pedestal, he became a man like others, to be preferred to others, as a handsome and gallant youth.Then Jenny mistook the last artifice of a discarded vanity for a generous impulse of the heart, and was deeply touched by this splendid last gift.
"You are not as poor as you say," she said," for you still have so large a sum.""But, dear child, I have several times given as much for diamonds which you envied."She reflected a moment, then as if an idea had struck her, exclaimed:
"That's true enough; but I can spend, oh, a great deal less, and yet be just as happy.Once, before I knew you, when I was young (she was now nineteen), ten thousand francs seemed to me to be one of those fabulous sums which were talked about, but which few men ever saw in one pile, and fewer still held in their hands."She tried to slip the money into the count's pocket; but he prevented it.
"Come, take it back, keep it - "
"What shall I do with it?"
"I don't know, but wouldn't this money bring in more? Couldn't you speculate on the Bourse, bet at the races, play at Baden, or something? I've heard of people that are now rich as kings, who commenced with nothing, and hadn't your talents either.Why don't you do as they did?"She spoke excitedly, as a woman does who is anxious to persuade.
He looked at her, astonished to find her so sensitive, so disinterested.
"You will, won't you?" she insisted, "now, won't you?""You are a good girl," said he, charmed with her, "but you must take this money.I give it to you, don't be worried about anything.""But you - have you still any money? What have you?""I have yet-"
He stopped, searched his pockets, and counted the money in his purse.
"Faith, here's three hundred and forty francs - more than I need.
I must give some napoleons to your servants before I go.""And what for Heaven's sake will become of you?"He sat back in his chair, negligently stroked his handsome beard, and said:
"I am going to blow my brains out."
"Oh!"
Hector thought that she doubted what he said.He took his pistols out of his pockets, showed them to her, and went on:
"You see these toys? Well, when I leave you, I shall go somewhere - no matter where - put the muzzle to my temple, thus, press the trigger - and all will be over!"She gazed at him, her eyes dilated with terror, pale, breathing hard and fast.But at the same time, she admired him.She marvelled at so much courage, at this calm, this careless railing tone.What superb disdain of life! To exhaust his fortune and then kill himself, without a cry, a tear, or a regret, seemed to her an act of heroism unheard of, unexampled.It seemed to her that a new, unknown, beautiful, radiant man stood before her.She loved him as she had never loved before!
"No!" she cried, "no! It shall not be!"