Marie-Louise glanced distractedly from one to the other. Mademoiselle Bliss was smiling--only it was a very strange smile. Why was she smiling like that? And Monsieur Valmain's face was twitching again, only it seemed that, where there had been anger before, there was now a curious mingling of confusion and passionate eagerness.
"Then," he said, and took a step forward, "then--"
"Then," Myrna Bliss interrupted evenly, and came slowly across the _atelier_, "then, of course, I understand everything, Monsieur Valmain. And I suppose I should feel flattered that you should take it upon yourself to avenge"--her voice was rising now, and the grey eyes were flashing dangerously--"to avenge my honour! How like a knight of old, Monsieur Valmain! How heroic! I have heard that Monsieur Valmain is one of the finest swordsmen in France; I have never heard that Monsieur Laparde was an adept at the art, but that, indeed, he was almost ignorant of it, and--"
"Mademoiselle!" he exclaimed hoarsely. "Mademoiselle--Myrna! You have no right to say that! It is not true!" He drew himself up, clenching his hands. "By God, not even you shall say that to me, to Paul Valmain! I offered--no, I insisted that we should fight with pistols. Laparde would not hear of it--they would make too much noise."
"Ah--a noise!" she said colourlessly. "And what then, Monsieur Valmain? Have you any other excuse for what you have done?"
"You know why I did it, if you have been listening!" he cried out. "You know why! You know that it was because I loved you--that I love you! That my soul was in hell with what I believed to be true!"
It seemed to Marie-Louise that she was living through some terrible, horrible dream. She reached out behind her, groping for the modelling platform, and sank down upon it. Mademoiselle's laugh was echoing through the room again, and there was something--something so menacing in it that it made her shudder.
"Love!"--Myrna Bliss was quivering with passion, as she stepped fiercely toward Paul Valmain. "Love! If I were a man, I would kill you for that kind of love! I would kill you! You beast! You dared to think--to think that I had come here in the middle of the night alone, to--to spend the night here! You dared to think that of me! That--that I was--"