n Morange resorted to action. "I must go down; I must find
Bonnard. Can you picture us falling through that hole to the very
bottom? No, no, this cannot be allowed. Either he must close this trap
or return to his post. What can he be doing? Where can he be?"

Morange had already betaken himself to a little winding staircase, by
which one reached every floor beside the lift, when in a voice which
gradually grew more indistinct, he again called: "I beg you, madame,
pray wait for me; remain there to warn anybody who might pass."

Constance was alone. The dull rattle of the rain on the glass above
her continued, but a little livid light was appearing as a gust of wind
carried off the clouds. And in that pale light Blaise suddenly appeared
at the end of the gallery. He had just returned to the factory with
Denis and Beauchene, and had left his companions together for a moment,
in order to go to the workshops to procure some information they
required. Preoccupied, absorbed once more in his work, he came along
with an easy step, his head somewhat bent. And when Constance saw him
thus appear, all that she felt in her heart was the smart of rancor, a
renewal of her anger at what she had learnt of that agreement which was
to be signed on the morrow and which would despoil her. That enemy who
was in her home and worked against her, a revolt of her whole being
urged her to exterminate him, and thrust him out like some usurper, all
craft and falsehood.

He drew nearer. She was in the dense shadow near the wall, so that he
could not see her. But on her side, as he softly approached steeped in
a grayish light, she could see him with singular distinctness. Never
before had she so plainly divined the power of his lofty brow, the
intelligence of his eyes, the firm will of his mouth. And all at once
she was struck with fulgural certainty; he was coming towards the cavity
without seeing it and he would assuredly plunge into the depths unless
she should stop him as he passed. But a little while before, she, like
himself, had come from yonder, and would have fallen unless a friendly
hand had restrained her; and the frightful shudder of that moment yet
palpitated in her veins; she could still and ever see the damp black pit
with the little lantern far below. The whole horror of it flashed before
her eyes--the ground failing one, the sudden drop with a great shriek,
and the smash a moment afterwards.

Blaise drew yet nearer. But certainly s