She leapt forward, in the excitement of the terrible words which she was uttering; and her finger-nails were almost touching her friend's face.
"Oh, don't tell me you didn't kill him!" she cried.
"Don't say that: I won't let you. Don't say it. The dagger is there, in your bag. My brother felt it, while he was talking to you; and his hand came out with stains of blood upon it: your husband's blood, Thérèse. And then, even if I had not discovered anything, do you think that I should not have guessed, in the first few minutes? Why, I knew the truth at once, Thérèse! When a sailor down there answered, 'M. d'Ormeval? He has been murdered,' I said to myself then and there, 'It's she, it's Thérèse, she killed him.'"
Thérèse did not reply. She had abandoned her attitude of protest. Hortense, wh
