The young man himself was aghast at
the sudden quarrel which he had dared to raise at the very moment
when he had resolved to speak words of gentleness, love and
submission to Christine. A husband, a lover with all rights,
would talk no differently to a wife, a mistress who had offended him.
But he had gone too far and saw no other way out of the ridiculous
position than to behave odiously.
"You don't answer!" he said angrily and unhappily. "Well, I will
answer for you. It was because there was some one in the room
who was in your way, Christine, some one that you did not wish
to know that you could be interested in any one else!"
"If any one was in my way, my friend," Christine broke in coldly,
"if any one was in my way, that evening, it was yourself, since I
told you to leave the room!"
"Yes, so that you might remain with the other!"
"What are you saying, monsieur?" asked the girl excitedly.
"And to what other do you refer?"
"To the man to whom you said, `I sing only for you!...to-night
I gave you my soul and I am dead!'"
Christine seized Raoul's arm and clutched it with a strength
which no one would have suspected in so frail a creature.
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