"So you do not know that the Minister decided this morning to put down
your Society?" the cashier continued. "The Procureur-General has a
list of your names. You have been betrayed. They are busy drawing up
the indictment at this moment."
"Then was it you who betrayed him?" cried Aquilina, and with a hoarse
sound in her throat like the growl of a tigress she rose to her feet;
she seemed as if she would tear Castanier in pieces.
"You know me too well to believe it," Castanier retorted. Aquilina was
benumbed by his coolness.
"Then how do you know it?" she murmured.
"I did not know it until I went into the drawing-room; now I know it
--now I see and know all things, and can do all things."
The sergeant was overcome with amazement.
"Very well then, save him, save him, dear!" cried the girl, flinging
herself at Castanier's feet. "If nothing is impossible to you, save
him! I will love you, I will adore you, I will be your slave and not
your mistress. I will obey your wildest whims; you shall do as you
will with me. Yes, yes, I will give you more than love; you shall have
a daughter's devotion as well as . . . Rodolphe! why will you not
understand! After all, however violent my passions may be, I shall be
yours for ever! What should I say to persuade you? I will invent
pleasures .
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