The marquise had taken advantage of the interruption to approach the door left open by the servant, and to call in a loud voice to the notary, who, seated in the next room, had also quickly risen at the sudden sound of the bell: "Monsieur, a thousand pardons for having made you wait so long; do me the favour to enter." The notary entered. "Go out," said Pascal, roughly, to his servant. And the financier wiped his livid brow, which was bathed in a cold sweat. Madeleine, alone with Pascal and the notary, said to the latter: "You have, monsieur, prepared the deed relating to M. Charles Dutertre?" "Yes, madame, there is nothing to do but to approve the document and sign." "Very well," said the marquise; then, while Pascal, wholly overcome, was leaning on the armchair before his desk, she took a sheet of paper and a pen, and wrote what follows: "Sign the deed, and, not only will I not live opposite your house, but this evening I will leave Paris, and will not return in a long time. What I promise I will keep." Having written these lines, she handed the paper to Pascal, and said to the notary: "I beg your pardon, sir; it concerned a condition relating to the deed that I desire to submit to M. Pascal." "Certainly, madame," replied the notary, while the financier was reading. He had hardly concluded his examination of the note, when he said to the notary, in a changed voice, as if he were eager to escape a great danger: "Let us--finish--this--deed." "I am going, monsieur, to give you a reading of it before signing," replied the notary, drawing the deed from his pocketbook, and slowly unfolding it. But M. Pascal snatched it rudely from his hands and said, as if his sight were overcast: "Where must I sign?" "Here, monsieur, and approve the document first, but it is customary--" Pascal wrote the approval of the document with a spasmodic and trembling hand, signed it, threw the pen on the desk, and inclined his head so as not to meet the glance of Madeleine. "There is no flourish here," said the careful notary. Pascal made the flourish; the notary took the deed with a surprised, almost frightened look, so sinister and dreadful was the expression of Pascal's face. The marquise, perfectly cool, took up her letter of credit lying on the desk, and said to the financier: "As I will have need of all my funds for my journey, monsieur, and as I leave this evening, I am going, if you please, to receive the whole amount of this letter of credit." "Pass to the counting-room," replied Pascal, mechanically, his eyes wandering and bloodshot; his livid pallor had suddenly turned to a purplish red. Madeleine preceding the notary, who made a pretext of saluting Pascal in order to look at him again, still with an air of alarm, went out of the office, shut the door, and said to the servant: "Where is the counting-room, please?" "The first door on the left in the court, madame."