significant when one heard it, for it was a hard and very
mocking laugh. I had always attributed that sort of reply to an
artifice which the occasion required. It was intended, I thought, to
accentuate the danger she incurred and the contempt that she felt for
it, thanks to the sureness of the thrower's hands, and so I was very
much surprised when the mountebank said to me:

"Have you observed her laugh, I say? Her evil laugh which makes fun of
me, and her cowardly laugh which defies me? Yes, cowardly, because she
knows that nothing can happen to her, nothing, in spite of all she
deserves, in spite of all that I ought to do to her, in spite of all
that I WANT to do to her."

"What do you want to do?"

"Confound it! Cannot you guess? I want to kill her."

"To kill her, because she has--"

"Because she has deceived me? No, no, not that, I tell you again. I
have forgiven her for that a long time ago, and I am too much
accustomed to it! But the worst of it is that the first time I forgave
her, when I told her that all the same I might some day have my revenge
by cutting her throat, if I chose, without seeming to do it on purpose,
as if it were an accident, mere awkwardness--"

"Oh! So you said that to her?"

"Of course I did, and I meant it. I thought I might be able to do it,
for you see I had the perfect right to do so. It was so simple, so
easy, so tempting! Just think! A mistake of less than half an inch, and
her skin would be cut at the neck where the jugular vein is, and the
jugular would be severed. My knives cut very well! And when once the
jugular is cut--good-bye. The blood would spurt out, and one, two,
three red jets, and all would be over; she would be dead, and I should
have had my revenge!"

"That is true, certainly, horribly true!"

"And without any risk to me, eh? An accident, that is all; bad luck,
one of those mistakes which happen every day in our business. What
could they accuse me of? Whoever would think of accusing me, even?
Homicide through imprudence, that would be all! They would even pity
me, rather than accuse me. 'My wife! My poor wife!' I should say,
sobbing. 'My wife, who is so necessary to me, who is half the
breadwinner, who takes part in my performance!' You must acknowledge
that I should be pitied!"

"Certainly; there is not the least doubt about that."

"And you must allow that such a revenge would he a very nice revenge,
the best possible revenge which I could have with ass