a million of money to save your life, you
would place it in danger for the poor satisfaction of avenging yourself
on me by taking my life? No, no! You are not quite such a fool as that,
at any rate!"

"Oh, misery, misery! Endless and inextricable! Whichever way I turn, I
see nothing but death or disgrace! My curse be on you--on all mankind!"

"Your misanthropy, then, exceeds your philanthropy; for while the former
embraces the whole world, the latter merely relates to a small part of
Paris."

"Go on, go on, monster! Mock as you will!"

"Would you rather I should overwhelm you with reproaches? Whose fault is
it but yours that we are placed in our present position? Why would you
persist in hanging to that letter of mine relative to the murder I
assisted you in, which gained you one hundred thousand crowns, although
you contrived to make it appear the man had fallen by his own hand? Why,
I say, did you keep that letter of mine suspended around your neck, as
though it had been a holy relic, instead of the confession of a crime?"

"Why, you contemptible being! Why, because having handed over to you
fifty thousand francs for your share and assistance in the deed, I
exacted from you that letter containing an admission of your
participation in the affair, in order that I might have that security
for your playing me fair; for with that document in existence, to betray
me would have been to denounce yourself. That letter was the security,
both for my life and fortune. Now are you answered as to my reasons for
keeping it so carefully about me?"

"I see! It was skilfully devised on your part, for by betraying you I
gained nothing but the certainty of perishing with you on the same
scaffold; and yet your cleverness has ruined us, while mine has assured
our safety, up to the present moment."

"Great safety, certainly, if our present situation is taken into
consideration!"

"Who could foresee the turn things have taken? But according to the
ordinary course of events, our crime would have remained for ever under
the same veil of concealment my management had thrown over it."

"Your management?"

"Even so! Why, do you not recollect that, after we had killed the man,
you were for merely counterfeiting his writing, in order to despatch a
letter as if from himself to his sister, stating his intention of
committing suicide in consequence of having utterly ruined himself by
losses at play? You believed it a great stroke of polic