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.
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