"In plain language, you are proposing to me an infamous deed!" she exclaimed with scathing irony which failed to scare the other. "I am proposing a matter of business. Where are you going?" "Straight to my husband--whose confidence you have imposed on by some deception" "Dear madame, do not do what you would eternally deplore," said Cantagnac quietly, and motioning with his broad hand for her to be seated again. "I deceived your husband with a bit of character acting which you would, I think, have applauded, as you were once on the stage--the music hall stage, at least." She sat down, as if this allusion had stunned her. "His secret is indispensable to my company and I was given instructions to try to obtain it, by surprise and for nothing, if possible. Without it, many another purchase of ours made at great expense, would become utterly useless. From an incomplete acquaintance with your husband, I feared I could do nothing with him; from a study of him here, at a later period, I doubted still more; and, having spoken with him, I am sure." A previous acquaintance with Clemenceau? It was a ray of light, but still Césarine, who did not cease to stare at him, failed to identify him with a figure in her past. Was this only a new phase of a Proteus? "Clemenceau is no longer the frank and enthusiastic student but a man of talent and feeling who has found his true course. In what concerns the revelation he has had from science, he is reserved and circumspect. Happily, man that is borne of woman, however great, if a simpleton and an idealist, almost always is the prey of the sex in one form or another. When they escape feminine influence, they are impregnable, and strong measures must be employed." "Strong measures," repeated Césarine, shuddering at the icy, passionless tone like a lecturer's. "They must be blotted off the book of life--and it is always painful to have to proceed to such extremities. It is frequent, very--and ninety-nine times in the hundred, we run up against the woman for whom a great magistrate advised the search whenever a crime is perpetrated." "It would appear that you expect to induce me to commit that crime!" sneered the woman, pale but rebellious. "We have no need to induce you, dear madame, for we can constrain you." "Constrain me!" repeated the woman savagely and tossing her head with pride. "If you really knew my nature, you would not say that. You might tell me how?"