"
He held out his hand; the other felt Castanier's superior power, and
could not choose but to obey.
"This house is mine; I could send for the commissary of police if I
chose, and give you up as a man who has hidden himself on my premises,
but I would rather let you go; I am a fiend, I am not a spy."
"I shall follow him!" said Aquilina.
"Then follow him," returned Castanier.--"Here, Jenny----"
Jenny appeared.
"Tell the porter to hail a cab for them.--Here Naqui," said Castanier,
drawing a bundle of bank-notes from his pocket; "you shall not go away
like a pauper from a man who loves you still."
He held out three hundred thousand francs. Aquilina took the notes,
flung them on the floor, spat on them, and trampled upon them in a
frenzy of despair.
"We will leave this house on foot," she cried, "without a farthing of
your money.--Jenny, stay where you are."
"Good-evening!" answered the cashier, as he gathered up the notes
again. "I have come back from my journey.--Jenny," he added, looking
at the bewildered waiting-maid, "you seem to me to be a good sort of
girl. You have no mistress now. Come here. This evening you shall have
a master."
Aquilina, who felt safe nowhere, went at once with the sergeant to the
house of one of her friends.
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