“I asked him gently. He still spoke with the accent of the country which he had just come from. “‘Emma,’ said he, ‘I think that you love me?’ “‘You know very well that I do, my dear benefactor. I am devoted to you, body and soul.’ “‘Do you think that you can love me with real love? Oh,’ said he, with a snigger, ‘I am no longer a young man, but....’ “What was I to say? I did not know. Lerne knitted his brows. “He seized my two hands. His eyes were terrible. “‘Now,’ cried he, ‘no more joking; no more little games, you are mine _exclusively_. I quite understood what was going on here, and that there were admirers hovering round you. I have got rid of Klotz, and as for Donovan Macbeth, be on your guard. If he does not stop, it is all up with him. Look out!’ “Then, Lerne, having got rid of the servants, took on this poor Barbe as his only domestic, and then he arranged the labyrinth and its roads. “On the day arranged, Macbeth, in his turn, came back to the _château_, followed by his dog. He was surprised to see the forest all upside down. “Lerne went up to him while he was still holding his luggage in his hand, and he quite dumbfounded him by such a violent lecture, and so evil a countenance, that Nell bristled up, put out her claws and began to growl. “What was bound to happen, happened. Considering the age and position of our host, Macbeth and I should probably have ‘respected his roof,’ as they say, but it was only a question, now, of deceiving an angry tyrant. And we did. “Meanwhile, the Professor became more and more absurd and irritable every day. He was living in an extraordinary state of excitement, never going out; working like a horse, genial, perhaps, but certainly ill. “You ask me why I think so. I will tell you. “His memory began to fail. He used to get strange fits of forgetfulness, and often asked me about things concerning his own past; he remembered nothing clearly except scientific matters. “No more joking, that was true, and no more happiness with him! “For a mere whim, Lerne would swear at me. For a suspicion, he would beat me. Not that I mind hard words or hard blows, but only from some one I love. “I declared to this worn-out old creature that I had had enough solitude. ‘I want to be off,’ I said. “Ah, my dear, if you had seen him. He fell at my knees and embraced them. “What he said was, ‘Remain, my dear Emma, for two years more. Wait until then, and we will go away together, and you shall have the life of a queen. Have patience. I understand you are not made to be in this sort of position, as if in a convent. Take my word for it, I am making a vast fortune for you. Two more years, living like a little _bourgeoisie_, and then the life of an empress.’ “I was dazzled at the prospect, and remained at Fonval. “But the years followed one after the other--the term was up, and no luxury yet. However, I waited and trusted, because Lerne was so confident, and so clever.