He dropped down on his knees in the grass, and cried, "If you will not pardon me, nothing remains for me but to die!" She stood motionless and impassive.

She repeated between her teeth Camille Langis's phrase: "I am waiting until this great comedian has finished playing his piece." He rose and started to run towards the well.

She was in front of him and barred the passage, but at the same moment she felt two hands clasp her waist, and the breath of two lips that sought her lips and that murmured, "You love me still, since you do not want me to die." She struggled with violence and horror; she succeeded, by a frantic effort, in disengaging herself from his grasp.

She fled towards the house.

Samuel Brohl rushed after her in mad pursuit; he was just reaching her, when he suddenly stopped.