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But Camille was delighted; he declared that he had the appearance of a person of distinction on the canvas. When he had thoroughly admired his own face, he declared he would go and fetch a couple of bottles of champagne. Madame Raquin went down to the shop, and the artist was alone with Therese. The young woman had remained seated, gazing vaguely in front of her. Laurent hesitated.
"Our poor Therese has had a bad night," Madame Raquin said to him, as soon as he had seated himself. "It seems she was suffering from nightmare, and terrible insomnia. I heard her crying out on several occasions. This morning she was quite ill." Therese, while her aunt was speaking, looked fixedly at Laurent.
While Madame Raquin went to fetch the box, the young man, addressing Michaud, continued: "Then you admit the police are powerless, that there are murderers walking about in the sunshine?" "Unfortunately, yes," answered the commissary. "It is immoral," concluded Grivet. During this conversation, Therese and Laurent had remained silent. They had not even smiled at the folly of Grivet.
In a clear, firm voice the young woman explained to him the plan she had conceived. The interview would take place in the nuptial chamber. The sweetheart would pass by the passage which ran into the arcade, and Therese would open the door on the staircase to him. During this time, Camille would be at his office, and Madame Raquin below, in the shop.
She fancied she read in the eyes of her accomplice, this menacing threat: "If you do not consent, I shall reveal everything." She began to stammer, and Madame Raquin exclaimed that the desire of her dear son was no more than what was just, and that they must give him the means to become a man of talent. The good lady spoilt Laurent as she had spoilt Camille.
All at once Madame Raquin recollected little Laurent, whom she found very much grown. It was quite ten years since she had seen him. She now did her best to make him forget her lapse of memory in greeting him, by recalling a thousand little incidents of the past, and by adopting a wheedling manner towards him that was quite maternal. Laurent had seated himself.
When by chance Madame Raquin and Camille went downstairs, Therese bounded from her chair, to silently, and with brutal energy, press her lips to those of her sweetheart, remaining thus breathless and choking until she heard the stairs creak. Then, she briskly seated herself again, and resumed her glum grimace, while Laurent calmly continued the interrupted conversation with Camille.
Besides, she experienced a sort of physical pleasure in giving way in this manner, in feeling feeble and undone, in abandoning herself to grief without resistance. She overwhelmed Madame Raquin with her tearful despair. The paralysed woman became of daily use to her.
He became alarmed at a certain change he observed in the attitude of his wife. Therese became sombre and taciturn. She no longer lavished effusions of repentance and grateful kisses on Madame Raquin. In presence of the paralysed woman, she resumed her manner of frigid cruelty and egotistic indifference.
"Your eyes will not eat me." And he cast her brutally on the bed. The impotent old lady fell unconscious on the mattress. Her last thought had been one of terror and disgust. In future, morning and night, she would have to submit to the vile pressure of the arms of Laurent. A shock of terror alone had made the married pair speak, and avow their crime in the presence of Madame Raquin.
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