Chapter III
The Call to Arms
The hideous accusation was followed by an awful silence. Élisabeth was now standing in front of her husband, striving to understand his words, which had not yet acquired their real meaning for her, but which hurt her as though she had been stabbed to the heart.
She moved towards him and, with her eyes in his, spoke in a voice so low that he could hardly hear:
"You surely can't mean what you said, Paul? The thing is too monstrous!"
He replied in the same tone:
"Yes, it is a monstrous thing. I don't believe it myself yet. I refuse to believe it."
"Then—it's a mistake, isn't it?—Confess it, you've made a mistake."
She implored him with all the distress that filled her being, as though she were hoping to make him yield. He fixed his eyes again on the accurs
