e as my
wretched life may be worth to you, and easier as it would be for you to
find a second wife than a second dog--"

"Woman!" he shrieked, driven furious by her impudent irony in this
terrible hour. "Not another word, or--"

"Or?"

She looked at him defiantly, as she rose and folded her arms.

"Or I will bring the matter to another end than you ever dreamed of,
and the carriage that you brought you here, you she-devil, laughing and
mocking at me with your pretty paramour, shall to-morrow--"

He raised his fist as if he were about to let it fall like a hammer on
her head. She returned his gaze without moving an eyelash.

"Murder me, if you have the heart to!" she said, coldly, with her lips
curled in scorn. "The comedy in which a dog has played such a splendid
_role_ would then end most fittingly as a tragedy, which would be
better, at all events, than a wretched reconciliation. As truly as I am
innocent of your madness and fury, so truly do I say that a more
undeserved disgrace was never heaped upon a helpless creature; that
happiness, honor, and future were never more ruthlessly--"

The door was thrown open. Felix, who had pushed back the listening
woman, thinking that the time had come to prevent an act of violence,
burst into the room and suddenly stood before the speaker. But scarcely
had she cast a look upon him than, with a shrill scream that went
through the very marrow of the men, she sank back, her arms as if
paralyzed by a sudden cramp, her features distorted, and in a state
that bore such unmistakable signs of truth that no thought of its being
some new deception was possible. Before Jansen had had time to collect
himself, the mother rushed in from the corridor and threw herself down
before her insensible daughter, who lay on the sofa with staring,
wide-open eyes, a vacant smile upon her lips, and hands hanging rigidly
at her side with the fingers spread wide apart.

"You have killed her!" cried the old woman, trying to lift the body,
which had half fallen to the ground, on to the cushions. "Help--save
her--bring water, vinegar--anything you have--Lucie--my poor
Lucie--don't you hear me? It is I! My God! My God! Must it come to
this!"

"It is a fainting-fit, nothing more!" Jansen's voice now broke in. "She
has had such fits before, especially after great exertion on the stage.
And to-day's scene--" his speech suddenly failed him. He had turned as
he spoke toward Felix, who stood in the middle o