“‘And what is all that?’

“Malgat jumped up, and stood before the safe, his arms far outstretched, as if to defend it, and said in an accent of ineffable terror,—­

“‘What are you thinking of?  And my honor?’

“This was to be his last effort to preserve his honor.  Sarah looked him straight in the face, and said slowly,—­

“’And my honor!  My honor is nothing to you?  Do I not give myself?  Do you mean to drive a bargain?’

“Great God!  She said this with an accent and with a look which would have tempted an angel.  Malgat fell helpless into a chair.

“Then she came close up to him, and, casting upon him those burning glances which blazed with superhuman audacity, she sighed,—­

“‘If you loved me really!  Ah, if you really loved me!’

“And she bent over him, tremulous with passion, watching his features so closely, that their lips nearly touched.

“‘If you loved me as I love you,’ she whispered again.

“It was all over; Malgat was lost.  He drew Sarah towards him, and said, kissing her,—­

“‘Very well then.  Yes!’

“She immediately disengaged herself, and with eager hands seized one parcel of bank-notes after another, pushing them into a little morocco bag which she held in her hand.  And, when the bag was full, she said,—­

“’Now we are safe.  To-night at ten o’clock, at the gate of the court-yard, with a carriage.  To-morrow, at daybreak, we shall be out of France, and free.  Now we are bound to each other forever,—­and I love you!’

“And she went away.  And he let her go away.”

The old gentleman had become ghastly white, his few hairs seemed to stand on end, and large drops of perspiration inundated his face as he swallowed at a gulp a cup of tea, and then went on, laughing bitterly,—­

“You suppose, no doubt, that, when Sarah had left him, Malgat came to himself?  By no means.  It seemed as if, with that kiss, with which she had paid him for his crime, the infamous creature had inspired him with the same genius for evil that was in her.

“Far from repenting, he rejoiced at what had been done; and when he learned, that, on the following day, the board of directors were to meet to examine the books, he laughed at the faces they would make; for I told you he was mad.  With all the coolness of a hardened thief, he calculated the total amount of what had been abstracted:  it was four hundred thousand francs.  Immediately, in order to conceal the true state of things, he took his books, and, with almost diabolic skill, altered the figures, and changed the entries, so as to make it appear that the defalcation was of long date, and that various sums had been abstracted for several months.  When he had finished his fearful task, he wrote to the board a hypocritical letter, in which he stated that he had robbed the safe in order to pay his differences on ’Change, and that now, when he could no longer conceal his crime, he was going to commit suicide.  When this was done, he left his office, as if nothing had happened.