Even if he were acquitted, and I wish he may be, but without hope,
he will not be less unworthy. He will always carry the dishonour, the
stain of blood cowardly shed. Therefore, forget him."
Mademoiselle d'Arlange stopped the magistrate with a look in which
flashed the strongest resentment.
"That is to say," she exclaimed, "that you counsel me to abandon him in
his misfortune. All the world deserts him; and your prudence advises me
to act with the world. Men behave thus, I have heard, when one of their
friends is down; but women never do. Look about you; however humiliated,
however wretched, however low, a man may be, you will always find a
woman near to sustain and console him. When the last friend has boldly
taken to flight, when the last relation has abandoned him, woman
remains."
The magistrate regretted having been carried away perhaps a little too
far. Claire's excitement frightened him. He tried, but in vain, to stop
her.
"I may be timid," she continued with increasing energy, "but I am no
coward. I chose Albert voluntarily from amongst all. Whatever happens,
I will never desert him. No, I will never say, 'I do not know this man.
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