Presently, he continued more calmly:  “I do not know why I have told you all this, for I have never mentioned it to anyone, but then, I have not seen anybody or spoken to anybody for two years!  And it was seething in my heart like a fermenting wine.  I have got rid of it, and so much the worse for you.  Well, I had made a mistake, but it was worse than I thought, much worse.  Just listen.  I employed the means which a man always does under such circumstances, and pretended that I was going to be away from home for a day, and whenever I did this my wife went out to lunch.  I need not tell you how I bribed a waiter in the restaurant to which they used to go, so that I might surprise them.

“He was to open the door of their private room for me and I arrived at the appointed time, with the fixed determination of killing them both.  I could see the whole scene, just as if it had already occurred!  I could see myself going in.  A small table covered with glasses, bottles and plates separated her from Montina, and they would be so surprised when they saw me, that they would not even attempt to move, and without a word, I should bring down the loaded stick which I had in my hand, on the man’s head.  Killed by one blow, he would fall with his head on the table, and then, turning towards her, I should leave her time—­a few moments—­to understand it all and to stretch out her arms towards me, mad with terror, before dying in her turn.  Oh!  I was ready, strong, determined, and pleased, madly pleased at the idea.  The idea of the terrified look that she would throw at my raised stick, of her arms that she would stretch out to me, of her horrified cry, of her livid and convulsed looks, avenged me beforehand.  I would not kill her at one blow!  You will think me cruel, I dare say; but you do not know what a man suffers.  To think that a woman, whether she be wife or mistress, whom one loves, gives herself to another, yields herself up to him as she does to you, and receives kisses from his lips, as she does from yours!  It is a terrible, an atrocious thing to think of.  When one feels that torture, one is ready for anything.  I only wonder that more women are not murdered, for every man who has been deceived longs to commit murder, has dreamt of it in the solitude of his own room, or on a deserted road, and has been haunted by the one fixed idea of satisfied vengeance.

“I arrived at the restaurant, and asked whether they were there.  The waiter whom I had bribed replied:  ‘Yes, Monsieur,’ and taking me upstairs, he pointed to a door, and said:  ‘That is the room!’ So I grasped my stick, as if my fingers had been made of iron, and went in.  I had chosen a most appropriate moment, for they were kissing most lovingly, but it was not Montina; it was General de la Fleche, who was sixty-six years old, and I had so fully made up my mind that I should find the other one there, I was motionless from astonishment.