And these began to glow, to glow, to glow! What was happening to me?
For a second I was blinded, dazzled, dazed. Then a sudden panic seized
on me. I felt my prey slipping from my clutches. With my last ounce
of will-power I pressed upon the trigger; but the weapon did not go
off. The eyes of my prisoner had fallen slowly, quietly, deliberately
from my eyes upon my hand. A vise-like grip fell upon my fingers,
paralyzing, bruising, crushing them. The automatic slipped from my
grasp and fell to the floor....
Then, in the same deep, solemn voice, coolly, calmly, as though nothing
whatever had occurred, the Marquis Gaspard answered my question:
“What am I doing with this woman here? No query could be more natural,
more legitimate, I am sure, Monsieur. I shall consider it a privilege
to satisfy your curiosity. But perhaps Monsieur would prefer to return
whence we came, to avoid any disturbance of Madame, in her slumbers.”
My two arms were hanging loose at my sides. And my two legs were free.
Nevertheless I felt bound hand and foot, unable to make the slightest
movement save such as my master, the Marquis Gaspard, commanded.... A
prisoner, body and soul, I obeyed in silence. I walked back toward the
room we had left a few moments before. As I stepped through the door
of Madeleine’s chamber, I experienced a bitter longing to give her one
more glance, one more, one more.
But it was not vouchsafed me to turn my head.