Perhaps you are too reasonable or too unreasonable with him." The countess got into a hackney-coach and was driven rapidly to the newspaper office.

At that hour the huge apartments which they occupied in an old mansion in the rue Feydeau were deserted; not a soul was there but the watchman, who was greatly surprised to see a young and pretty woman hurrying through the rooms in evident distress.

She asked him to tell her where was Monsieur Nathan.
"At Mademoiselle Florine's, probably," replied the man, taking Marie for a rival who intended to make a scene.
"Where does he work ?" "In his office, the key of which he carries in his pocket." "I wish to go there." The man took her to a dark little room looking out on a rear court-yard.
The office was at right angles.

Opening the window of the room she was in, the countess could look through into the window of the office, and she saw Nathan sitting there in the editorial arm-chair.
"Break in the door, and be silent about all this; I'll pay you well," she said.

"Don't you see that Monsieur Nathan is dying ?" The man got an iron bar from the press-room, with which he burst in the door.