“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... I... Great heavens! one moment! whatever you shall ask of me--to fling myself from the window for instance--you will need to say but one word, ‘Leon!’ and I will plunge down into hell. I would bear any torture, any pain of body or soul, anything you might inflict upon me!” Castanier heard her with indifference. For an answer, he indicated Leon to her with a fiendish laugh. “The guillotine is waiting for him,” he repeated. “No, no, no! He shall not leave this house. I will save him!” she cried. “Yes; I will kill any one who lays a finger upon him! Why will you not save him?” she shrieked aloud; her eyes were blazing, her hair unbound. “Can you save him?” “I can do everything.” “Why do you not save him?” “Why?” shouted Castanier, and his voice made the ceiling ring.--“Eh! it is my revenge! Doing evil is my trade!” “Die?” said Aquilina; “must he die, my lover? Is it possible?” She sprang up and snatched a stiletto from a basket that stood on the chest of drawers and went to Castanier, who now began to laugh. “You know very well that steel cannot hurt me now----” Aquilina’s arm suddenly dropped like a snapped harp string. “Out with you, my good friend,” said the cashier, turning to the sergeant, “and go about your business.” 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.”