"
In her bitter eagerness she took a step nearer to him. "As things might
be, if you were the man you were yesterday, willing to throw up
everything for me?"
"Like that--if you put it so," he answered.
She walked slowly up to him, looking as though she would plunge a knife
into his heart. "I wish Jean Jacques had opened the gates," she said. "It
would have saved the hangman trouble."
Then suddenly, and with a cry, she raised her hand and struck him full in
the face with her fist. At that instant came a tap at the door of the
other room, and the Clerk of the Court appeared. He saw the blow, and
drew back with an exclamation.
Carmen turned to him. "Farewell has been said, M'sieu' Fille," she
remarked in a voice sombre with rage and despair, and she went to the
door leading to the street.
Masson had winced at the blow, but he remained silent. He knew not what
to say or do.
M. Fille hastily followed Carmen to the door. "You are going home, dear
madame? Permit me to accompany you," he said gently. "I have to do
business with Jean Jacques."
A hand upon his chest, she pushed him back. "Where I go I'm going alone,"
she said. Opening the door she went out, but turning back again she gave
George Masson a look that he never forgot. Then the door closed.
"Grace of God, she is not going home!" brokenly murmured the Clerk of the
Court.
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