Why should
he not save himself? There had been many just such cases. He could go to
a foreign country, change his name, begin his life over again, become a
new man entirely. He had money; and that was the main thing.
And, besides, as soon as his eighty thousand francs were spent, he had
the certainty of receiving, on his first request, five or six times as
much more.
He was already thinking of the disguise he should assume, and of the
frontier to which he should proceed, when the recollection of Juliette
pierced his heart like a red hot iron.
Was he going to leave without her, going away with the certainty of
never seeing her again? What! he would fly, pursued by all the police
of the civilized world, tracked like a wild beast, and she would remain
peaceably in Paris? Was it possible? For whom then had he committed this
crime? For her. Who would have reaped the benefits of it? She. Was it
not just, then, that she should bear her share of the punishment?
"She does not love me," thought the advocate bitterly, "she never loved
me. She would be delighted to be forever free of me. She will not regret
me, for I am no longer necessary to her.
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