Besides, she
would make that young fellow her son; she would direct him, she would
compel him to be hers, to work through her and for her.
"You wish to know how I shall employ him in the place," she resumed. "I
myself don't know. It is evident that I shall not easily find the
hundreds of thousands of francs which may be required. Your figures are
accurate, and it is possible that we may never have the money to buy back
the property. But, all the same, why not fight, why not try? And,
besides--I will admit it--suppose we are vanquished, well then, so much
the worse for the other. For I assure you that if this young man will
only listen to me, he will then become the agent of destruction, the
avenger and punisher, implanted in the factory to wreck it!"
With a gesture which summoned ruin athwart the walls, she finished
expressing her abominable hopes. Among her vague plans, reared upon hate,
was that of employing the wretched Alexandre as a destructive weapon,
whose ravages would bring her some relief. Should she lose all other
battles, that would assuredly be the final one. And she had attained to
this pitch of madness through the boundless despair in which the loss of
her only son had plunged her, withered, consumed by a love which she
could not content, then demented, perverted to the point of crime.
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