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'SAINT GRIS! he cried; and sat glaring at the bit of yellow satin, with his face turned purple and his jaw fallen. 'What is it! I said, staring at him in turn, 'What is the matter, fool? 'Matter? he blurted out. But Clon's excitement surpassed even his.
In particular, I augured the worst from Clon's appearance. His lean malevolent face and sunken eyes, his very dumbness chilled me. Mercy had no place there. We rode soberly, so that nearly half an hour elapsed before we gained the brow from which I had taken my first look at Cocheforet.
She hid the feeling bravely, however, and met me with a careless word; but she turned to the house more than once while we talked, and she seemed to be all the while on the watch, and uneasy. I was not surprised when Clon's figure presently appeared in the doorway, and she left me abruptly, and went to him. I only felt more certain than before that there was something strange on foot.
Clon took one pistol, and gave it to the shock-headed man. 'The other! the innkeeper said impatiently. But Clon shook his head with a grim smile, and pointed to the arquebuss. By a sudden movement, the landlord snatched the pistol, and averted Clon's vengeance by placing both it and the gun in the shock-headed man's hands. 'There! he said, addressing the latter, 'now can you do?
To be frank, however, it was not the old wound that touched me so nearly, but Madame's words; which, finishing what Clon's sudden appearance in the garden had begun, went a long way towards hardening me and throwing me back into myself.
And life at Cocheforet was all after the pattern of this dinner. Each day, I might almost say each meal, gave rise to the same sequence of thoughts. In Clon's presence, or when some word of Madame's, unconsciously harsh, reminded me of the distance between us, I was myself.
The wood-doves cooed in the stillness; occasionally the harsh cry of a jay jarred the silence. It was an hour after noon, and hot. I think I nodded. On a sudden, as if in a dream, I saw Clon's face peering at me round the angle of the parlour door. He looked, and in a moment withdrew, and I heard whispering. The door was gently closed. Then all was still again.
The ledge sloped steeply there, the edge was vague, already the two seemed to be wrestling in mid air; and the mute was desperate. That moment of hesitation was fatal. Clon's long arms were round the other's arms, crushing them into his ribs; Clon's skull-like face grinned hate into the other's eyes; his bony limbs curled round him like the folds of a snake. Larolle's strength gave way.
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