him, absent-minded, with roaming eyes. Lupin, captivated by that
powerful and sorrowful countenance, continued to watch her; and he was
vainly seeking to remember of what or of whom she reminded him, when
he noticed that she had turned her head slightly and that she was
imperceptibly moving her arm.

And her arm strayed farther and farther and her hand crept along
the table and Lupin saw that, at the end of the table, there stood
a water-bottle with a gold-topped stopper. The hand reached the
water-bottle, felt it, rose gently and seized the stopper. A quick
movement of the head, a glance, and the stopper was put back in its
place. Obviously, it was not what the woman hoped to find.

"Dash it!" said Lupin. "She's after the crystal stopper too! The matter
is becoming more complicated daily; there's no doubt about it."

But, on renewing his observation of the visitor, he was astounded
to note the sudden and unexpected expression of her countenance, a
terrible, implacable, ferocious expression. And he saw that her hand
was continuing its stealthy progress round the table and that, with an
uninterrupted and crafty sliding movement, it was pushing back books
and, slowly and surely, approaching a dagger whose blade gleamed among
the scattered papers.

It gripped the handle.

Daubrecq went on talking. Behind his back, the hand rose steadily,
little by little; and Lupin saw the woman's desperate and furious eyes
fixed upon the spot in the neck where she intended to plant the knife:

"You're doing a very silly thing, fair lady," thought Lupin.

And he already began to turn over in his mind the best means of escaping
and of taking Victoire with him.

She hesitated, however, with uplifted arm. But it was only a momentary
weakness. She clenched her teeth. Her whole face, contracted with
hatred, became yet further convulsed. And she made the dread movement.

At the same instant Daubrecq crouched and, springing from his seat,
turned and seized the woman's frail wrist in mid-air.

Oddly enough, he addressed no reproach to her, as though the deed which
she had attempted surprised him no more than any ordinary, very natural
and simple act. He shrugged his shoulders, like a man accustomed to that
sort of danger, and strode up and down in silence.

She had dropped the weapon and was now crying, holding her head between
her hands, with sobs that shook her whole frame.

He next came up to her and said a few words, once more tap