ssary that
one of them should disappear so that the other might enjoy some repose.
This reflection came to them both at the same time; both felt the urgent
necessity for a separation, and both desired that it should be eternal.
The murder that now occurred to their minds, seemed to them natural,
fatal and forcibly brought about by the murder of Camille. They did not
even turn the matter over in their heads but welcomed the idea as the
only means of safety. Laurent determined he would kill Therese because
she stood in his way, because she might ruin him by a word, and because
she caused him unbearable suffering. Therese made up her mind that she
would kill Laurent, for the same reasons.

The firm resolution to commit another murder somewhat calmed them.
They formed their plans. But in that respect they acted with feverish
excitement, and without any display of excessive prudence. They only
thought vaguely of the probable consequences of a murder committed
without flight and immunity being ensured. They felt the invincible
necessity to kill one another, and yielded to this necessity like
furious brutes. They would not have exposed themselves for their first
crime, which they had so cleverly concealed, and yet they risked the
guillotine, in committing a second, which they did not even attempt to
hide.

Here was a contradiction in their conduct that they never so much as
caught sight of. Both simply said to themselves that if they succeeded
in fleeing, they would go and live abroad, taking all the cash with
them. Therese, a fortnight or three weeks before, had drawn from the
bank the few thousand francs that remained of her marriage portion, and
kept them locked up in a drawer--a circumstance that had not escaped
Laurent. The fate of Madame Raquin did not trouble them an instant.

A few weeks previously, Laurent had met one of his old college friends,
now acting as dispenser to a famous chemist, who gave considerable
attention to toxicology. This friend had shown him over the laboratory
where he worked, pointing out to him the apparatus and the drugs.

One night, after he had made up his mind in regard to the murder, and
as Therese was drinking a glass of sugar and water before him, Laurent
remembered that he had seen in this laboratory a small stoneware flagon,
containing prussic acid, and that the young dispenser had spoken to him
of the terrible effects of this poison, which strikes the victim down
with sudden death,