"Stop one second!" cried the master-carpenter, sharply now, for in spite
of the sudden savagery on Jean Jacques' part, he felt he had an
advantage, and now he would play his biggest card.
"You can kill me. It is there in your hand. No one can stop you. But will
that give you anything? What is my life? If you take it away, will you be
happier? It is happiness you want. Your wife--she will love you, if you
give her a chance. If you kill me, I will have my revenge in death, for
it is the end of all things for you. You lose your wife for ever. You
need not do so. She would have gone with me, not because of me, but
because I was a man who she thought would treat her like a friend, like a
comrade; who would love her--sacre, what husband could help make love to
such a woman, unless he was in love with himself instead of her!"
Jean Jacques rocked to and fro over the lever in his agitation, yet he
made no motion to move it. He was under a spell.
Straight home drove the master-carpenter's reasoning now. "Kill me, and
you lose her for ever. Kill me, and she will hate you. You think she will
not find out? Then see: as I die I will shriek out so loud that she can
hear me, and she will understand. She will go mad, and give you over to
the law. And then--and then! Did you ever think what will become of your
child, of your Zoe, if you go to the gallows? That would be your legacy
and your blessing to her--the death of a murderer; and she would be left
alone with the woman that would hate you in death! Voila--do you not
see?"
Jean Jacques saw.
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