She saw that it was all over, and that he knew everything, that she could not prove her innocence, and that she must comply, but all her impudence had returned to her, and her hatred for the man, which was exasperated now, drove her to audacity, made her feel the need of bravadoes, and of defying him, and so she said in a clear voice:  “Come, Limousin, as he is going to turn me out of doors, I will go to your lodgings with you.”

But Limousin did not move, and Parent, in a fresh access of rage, cried out:  “Go, will you! go, you wretches!... or else!... or else!...” and he seized a chair and whirled it over his head.

Then Henriette walked quickly across the room, took her lover by the arm, dragged him from the wall to which he appeared fixed, and dragged him towards the door, saying:  “Do come, my friend ... you see that the man is mad....  Do come!”

As she went out, she turned round to her husband, trying to think of something that she could do, something that she could invent to wound him to the heart as she left the house, and an idea struck her, one of those venomous, deadly ideas in which all a woman’s perfidy shows itself, and she said resolutely:  “I am going to take my child with me.”

Parent was stupefied and stammered:  “Your ... your ... child?  You dare to talk of your child?...  You venture ... you venture to ask for your child ... after ... after ...  Oh! oh! that is too much!...  Go, you horrid wretch!...  Go!...”  She went up to him again, almost smiling, almost avenged already, and defying him, standing close to him, and face to face, she said:  “I want my child, and you have no right to keep him, because he is not yours ... do you understand?... he is not yours ... he is Limousin’s.”  And Parent cried out in bewilderment:  “You lie ... you lie you wretch!”

But she continued:  “You fool!  Everybody knows it, except you.  I tell you, this is his father.  You need only look at him, to see it....”

Parent staggered back from her, and then he suddenly turned round, took a candle and rushed into the next room; almost immediately, however, he returned, carrying little George, wrapped up in his bed clothes, and the child, who had been suddenly awakened, was crying with fright.  Parent threw him into his wife’s arms, and then, without saying anything more, he pushed her roughly out, towards the stairs, where Limousin was waiting, from motives of prudence.

Then he shut the door again, double-locked it, and bolted it, and he had scarcely got into the drawing-room, when he fell onto the floor at full length.

II